Huntress
by Wanda Ginny Greenleaf
Summary: OoTP. Harry gets some unexpected help thanks to the Veil - a group of hardened female warriors, once Hogwarts students, from a war-torn dimension where the war on Voldemort nearly destroyed Britain. The older Hermione Granger is bent on finding a way to keep this Harry alive after hers died. If that means she and her friends kill every single death eater alive? So be it. Violent.
1. Chapter 1

**Huntress**

**Moon: Welcome back everyone! This idea wouldn't give me peace until I put it up here, so here you go! Here's to the first in what will be an unconnected group of stories involving dimension jumping. Time travel is easy and overdone, and I prefer to try ideas that aren't seen as often. This story will take a rather negative viewpoint on how wizarding society – at least British society – is run, in the Ministry, the Prophet and pureblood society. I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 1: New World, New Start**

Dry lightning cracked across the sky as a young woman walked along a long deserted railway track. A long time ago it used to guide a train full of eager students to a school where they would learn magic. That was all before the wars.

She meant to walk past the extended ward lines to join her companions in the Ministry. No one remained in the old castle alone anymore.

The sun was low in the sky, and obscured by thick black storm clouds. Rain poured down on the ruined buildings and track, adding an air of depression to an already sombre scene. Years of war had ravaged the landscape almost beyond recognition, even to those who had made the place a second home back in a more innocent time.

The surroundings grounds were bare and cracked like the desert, only a few hardy weeds growing where there had once been flowers and green grass. The vast forest, once a haven to creatures of all kinds was a still-smoking wreck with only a few young trees growing in its wake. Anything that had lived there had either taken part in battle or fled for dear life a long time ago.

There was a hole in the ground where a lake had once been, where not a drop of water remained for long. Under a thin layer of mud there was a mountain of bones, belonging to the tribe of merpeople that had once lived under the surface.

And after all of these things were the dim walls of an old school, refitted back into its original purpose of a fortress. The new brick made it clear that it had been rebuilt more then once in recent times. Once it had been a school full of curious, eager young children. Now it was the retreat of a group of soldiers who were not prepared to rejoin the world they had saved.

It had been a long time since the sun had shone on this place.

The war that had done all of those things had been ended four brutal years ago. In the time of a man called Lord Voldemort, who had sought to take control of the world in the name of his image and ideas of who should and shouldn't be a wizard. He had stalked Britain for twenty years before his followers managed to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic. Once he had done that, he sent his men into the streets and then marched on Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry to destroy his last opponents.

The battle had begun there. It had been fast and violent, over in less then a month. There are those who fled, but many chose to stand and fight.

The defenders of the castle had fought a bitter battle, and eventually the lines of the enemy had broken.

And then the unthinkable had happened.

Those who had been the defenders pushed forward and gave chase, following their opponents with the vigor and violence that they had once been shown. They slaughtered even the hardened fighters, along with their leader, and sent the others scurrying for shelter.

For a few days, the country sat in shocked silence. Then, their wounded treated, the defenders left the castle once more and marched on the Ministry, still occupied by the remains of the tyrant's enforcers.

They were few in number, but they were battle hardened in a way that few Aurors lived to become, and driving their forces was the undeniable fact that they had nothing left to loose.

With this, the Hogwarts students struck a stunning victory over the remaining torturers and took charge of the Ministry. Those who had survived the initial battle were shown no quarter, and the bodies were displayed on the walls of the building. The people were shocked, but still reeling from months of tragedy, they merely watched the young warriors reforms in bewildered silence.

Harry Potter had no lived to see the collapse of Riddle's attempted takeover. He was one of many who had died in the battle at Hogwarts – the only person who had reportedly died twice. But his memories and the knowledge he had built up played a vital part in the fallout days. There was going to be a statue in commemoration of him raised inside the Ministry when there was time.

From Harry's memories came the knowledge that Tom Riddle was half blood. The purebloods that had been raving in the wake of the retaking of the Ministry building fell silent in shock. Those that still continued to attack or preside over their muggleborn and half blood counterparts were met with decisive response from the warriors of Hogwarts. Many were tossed in the refitted Azkaban.

With Tom Riddle's forces destroyed to a man, his public image decimated with reveals of his past and of his true intentions, and young warriors scouring the streets daring anyone to follow in the man's footsteps, Britain's second wizarding war was over.

Unfortunately, this did not see to the end of the violence. The cornerstones of society had been eroding slowly but surely for years, injustice often prevailing over the law and common decency. New enemies emerged from the ashes of the war, thinking it weak and ripe for the taking.

The Huntresses, as they began to call themselves for so many of their men were dead, were few in number in comparison to what they were going to face. But they had become old soldiers under the hardships they had faced, and they were not to be challenged lightly.

The first resurfaced violence came from the Goblins of Gringotts. They were also the first ones to realize how dearly they had underestimated their opponents.

The goblins had been opportunists in the battle, for they had no love of wizards. They had supported both sides in the battle, claiming that they never failed to serve old customers. Thinking they could get a few boons for themselves and establish superiority in the wake of the tragedies, the Goblins rallied their fighting forces and began to march through the streets. For surely, after the wizards had suffered such losses merely spreading some chaos and fear would be all they had to do to finally win the rebellion they had been trying for in many, many years.

The Huntresses were just upstart children. They would be easily stomped out. And once that had been done they would hold peace talks with the wizards, where they would finally be the ones receiving concessions as opposed to the other way around.

But the Huntresses never forgave, and they never forgot. They had long memories of the wars they had survived, and the knowledge of how close the goblins had brought Voldemort to victory gave them strength to fight in the aftermath.

They saw the Goblin's actions for what they were, and they wouldn't give in. As the goblin warriors began marching through the streets with their enslaved monsters, meaning to secure the Ministry, they were struck from both side in a surprise counterattack.

Unlike the earlier rebellions, the Huntresses didn't face the Goblins head on in suicidal charges, but struck in unexpected places with lightning speed before reappearing somewhere else. They were so fast and fierce lights from their wands and weapons flashed like bolts of lightning, cutting through the sky and decimating the enemy ranks. There was no reserve, just a burning anger and deadly skill.

The Goblins shares one aspect with the Death Eaters. They only went on the offensive when they were sure of victory, when they believed they were facing people who couldn't hope to defeat them. So when the Huntresses fell upon them with their vigour, they broke apart easily and retreated to the halls of Gringotts, sealing the doors behind them. Inside, they fooled themselves into thinking that they could starve the young army out.

But the Huntresses wouldn't wait, and they hadn't shown all their cards in the opening battle. The very next day, the scream of two jets cut through the air above the Ministry. The F-22s reworked by one of the muggleborn geniuses fired their entire payloads into the building's doors, obliterating them in one deadly moment. And in that moment, the Huntresses did what no other wizard before them had done and stormed the bank that others had called impenetrable.

The goblins had not expected the assault to bear fruit, and retreated into the twisting tunnels that lead to the network of vaults. The Huntresses followed with a vengeance, and in an epic siege like something out of a legend, they fought their way through the dungeons and drove the goblins deeper and deeper into the earth until they had fled entirely in fear.

Turning to the vaults filled with gold and jewels, the young women took what they needed as measures to rebuild the shattered world. They also freed the many slaves the goblins had been keeping – humans chained together, digging out vaults and building rails day and night. Some had been taken so young they didn't remember what sunlight was like. Dragons and Manticores, taken from their families and homes, tortured and chained to the larger vaults were also set loose, along with the blinded trolls who were kept as guards. They were released, but some remained behind out of loyalty to the first to have shown them such kindness.

The Huntresses were initially all Hogwarts students who had no wish to draw blood, but were driven to it by the attacks of Death Eaters. Some were muggleborns, who had lost family members to raids or had been tortured themselves for the crime of who their parents were. Others were purebloods, disowned and disgraced by their families for daring to side with their tormented friends.

And a few of them were originally followers of Dumbledore, who after loosing their families and friends had taken measures the old, foolish chessmaster never would have allowed – responding to lethal force with lethal force.

Many had no family to return to when the dust finally settled. So they began living together, trying to rebuild their world.

But even the Goblins weren't the end of it. Voldemort had unleashed a swarm of dark creatures, including trolls, werewolves, inferni, dementors and other foul beasts that were still rampaging across the countryside. Some towns had been overrun entirely, sending still more refugees running for the Ministry.

Trolls were coming down in force from the mountains. Evidently Voldemort had promised them something if they had fought on his side, and they were coming to collect their dues. Trolls were among some of the more dangerous creatures; they weren't the brightest, but their skins were resistant to most spells and they were strong enough to lift muggle tanks overhead.

The Aurors, helpless to detain the many monsters for they had lost most of their men in earlier battles, turned to the Huntresses and begged them to stop the ravaging of the land.

The young warriors were reluctant, after two years of violence, but they conceded with the knowledge that if the creatures weren't stopped, Britain would never recover.

They split into teams – into old friendships that they had kept during wartime, relationships that had been kept secret. Then they prowled the countryside.

Trolls were slaughtered or sent back to the mountains. Instead of using spells that they knew the trolls could resist, the Huntresses used the environment to their advantage, creating fire and ice storms that felled so many that the countryside was littered with the huge dead carcasses. The trolls were more stubborn then some of their earlier enemies, but they were driven back in time, retreating to the mountains they had come from.

The Huntresses grew more and more popular, as they had done what had been considered impossible and defending the struggling people not once but three times from seemingly insurmountable foes. People began to rally around them when they saw them approaching.

The Huntresses split up again and turned their attention to the other dark creatures that had been given free reign by the last dark lord. Dementors were driven away from settlements they had been praying out without restraint ever since Voldemort had broken down the gates of Azkaban. The soul-sucking monsters fled to the sea, from which few had ventured back from.

Next came the packs of feral werewolves, some of the most dangerous of creatures. One warrior in particular had a personal score to settle with Fenrir Greyback and his pack, and when she met him for the third time the werewolf did not survive.

Good werewolves assisted in breaking up the violent packs, and sniffed out those who had become infected. For this, they were welcomed back into the community. One Huntress – a talented potions master – busied herself brewing wolfsbane potions for the next few months.

Slowly the creatures were driven back, and the residents of Britain cheered. Some of them, emboldened by what finally looked like there was a future to be had, joined the Huntresses in battle. The people offered support and whatever money they had left to the young women in exchange for their help rebuilding their shattered country.

Neville Longbottom had been chosen as a temporary Minister of Magic, by his ageing grandmother. Immediately he went about taking down the restrictive and barbaric laws that had been set up by greedy purebloods and corrupt bureaucrats. He set out recruitment notices to rebuilt the Auror forces and put out international help boards to refill the positions of the Unspeakables. Neville had a bright mind despite his age, though his wife often stepped in to help him when the stress became too much.

After a week Neville had another problem to deal with. The British Prime Minister had eventually appeared in the Ministry office, pale and demanding an explanation.

The violence had become so prevalent that the shockwaves were being felt in the muggle world. Muggleborn parents who had been killed by Death Eaters had the police in a panic looking for the killers, and the goblins had trashed a good number of muggle train stations on their way to the Ministry. Bridges had been destroyed by spells, homes ransacked and set on fire. The Prime Minister suspected that the crimes were magical in nature when nothing seemed to make sense and was insisting he be informed.

Eventually, two of the Huntresses leaders met with him and explained the situation. The Prime Minister was shocked at their age and the story they had to tell him, and they earned his sympathy.

He proclaimed that he would help them to the best of his ability. He gave them advice on how to rebuild the Ministry, which had been decimated after Voldemort's sympathizers and other nutcases who had gained power were removed from their positions and dealt with accordingly. For the first time, a wizard in power had actually accepted the advice of his muggle counterpart.

Britain finally thought it might see another day, but the final blow was yet to be dealt.

The International Confederation of Wizards, lead by one Albus Dumbledore, demanded a worldwide review of the 'vigilantes' 'barbaric' justice and the way they had handled the situation.

The man had retreated from Britain after Voldemort came out in full, ostensibly to gain some international help due to insufficient number of resisters, but he had been completely absent from the country during its darkest hours.

This sparked massive resentment within Britian, and with some surrounding countries that had any details of what had been going on within its borders. Civilians were threatening to riot in the streets and newspapers would print nothing else but the injustice of it.

The ICW scaled back a bit upon this response and settled for insisting that the Huntresses come to a board review.

The Huntresses agreed to send their leading members to the meeting at the ICW headquarters in the United States of America. People cheered as they walked to the portkey point, throwing flowers and promising to back them up.

**Britain Review, International Confederation of Wizards, December 2000**

It looked more like a tribunal then a meeting room, with Dumbledore sitting in the judge-like chair of the Supreme Mugwump. It seemed that the old defeater of Grindelwald had already made up his mind about the actions of the young women in question. The others weren't quite so certain, many of them having heard the stories that had come out of Britain over the past few years.

The leaders of other magical countries were sitting in their designated seats, which swung out like a semicircle around a group of chairs in the middle of the room. It had a high ceiling and bright white lights from muggle floodlights that the American Ministry had insisted on. The walls were painted white, giving it the look of a muggle hospital. The room itself didn't look very friendly, even without the people currently sitting in it. There were Aurors at every entrance, and the building itself was under so many wards that its security system was believed unbreakable.

"This court is now in session," Dumbledore intoned. Everyone stood up as ten Aurors led a group of young women into the room.

It started a row of whispering, as the other leaders sized up the children in front of them.

One girl had sleek, curly bronze hair that had lost its old bushy look. She was missing an ear, having lost it to a curse in the battle at Hogwarts. The other one had a single sapphire earring hanging from it. She was wearing a black leather jacket and combat pants, with a belt clearly meant not just to hold her wand but other weapons. Heavy boots of a muggle make were on her feet. There was a scar inflicted by curse over one brown eye, both of which became flinty and cold when they settled on Dumbledore. There was an air of authority and command to her, for this was not the place for the vulnerability she showed in private. Her hands clenched at empty air, as though she missed the presence of her wand. Her name was Hermione Granger, and you wouldn't have recognized her if you had only known her as a young girl. She was now known not as the insufferably smart girl who got the highest number of Outstandings in Hogwarts, but as a frighteningly brilliant strategist who had crushed three uprisings that men twice her age had floundered for decades trying to defuse. She was a committed protector of the people under her care, which had extended past the walls of her school to the entirety of Magical Britain.

The next was a girl with hair like wildfire, which had been awkwardly cut to a boyish appearance after a goblin had nearly gotten the upper hand over her by grabbing a fistful. Her skin had taken a darker tone to it, both from having sustained burns from a dragon's fire and many brutal hours of fighting in the sun during the summertime. Her brown eyes were like daggers as they surveyed the room, as if she was picking out who might be an imposter. She was wearing the same leather outfit as Hermione, except the earring she was wearing was a dragon's tooth, and a keepsake from a fallen brother. Ginny Weasley had lost her family – her entire family, save for Muriel Prewett who abandoned her to her fate – to the Death Eaters, and she had been the most outraged by the ICW's call for an investigation into 'war crimes'. She was one of the lead fighters, the moment she got onto a broomstick she became unstoppable on the battlefield.

The girl on Hermione's left had a dark hood over her head of silver hair, that she had tied up in a low ponytail. Blue eyes like plates of ice scanned the room with barely restrained contempt. Her entire outfit was black and silver, with long sleeves and pants. Two small earrings hung from her ears, sparkling like fallen stars. There were three tight golden bracelets on both of her wrists and ankles, looking almost like painted shackles. A gold chain with a small blue gem hung around her neck. She had never worn the school uniform at any point during her schooling at Hogwarts. Her skin was pale like fallen snow, and cold to the touch. Lilith Moon was rarely heard speaking, but the rumours of her family had been confirmed as a terrifying fact. She was right beside Ginny and Hermione whenever they lead and attack, and her curse had become her power.

Behind Lilith was a girl with blonde hair, falling around her face wild in loose curls. Slash marks marred her once beautiful face, scars that marked her as a part werewolf. Gone were her fashionable clothes and bubbly skip, she now wore camouflaged shirt and pants, and she was built like a hulking amazon. Her green eyes had lost their spark, and now had the same shape as a wolf's, giving her a feral appearance that made people scramble out of the way when they saw her walking down the streets. Lavander Brown was all but unrecognizable to anyone who had known her. She had taken to the quirks of the condition Fenrir had left her with and used them to her advantage. She was the most brutal of the front six fighters.

Next to Lavander was a dark-skinned girl who's hand discreetly touched the part-werewolf's. Her dark eyes had a very haunted cast to them, for her twin sister had been taken from her by Bellatrix Lestrange. She had taken the maniac by surprise and paid her back in kind, but the damage had been done. She wasn't much of a front-line fighter, but she had some skills in healing – they weren't her greatest talent though. The gift of Sight was strong in her, stronger then had been seen in years though it had lain dormant for a long time. The trauma of Padma's death had awakened it in her, and now Pavarti Patil provided invaluable intelligence to her friends and fellow warriors whenever they were planning an assault.

The last leader was a girl with short red hair, darker then Ginny's. She was dressed plainly, but she was fiddling with and twisting a chess piece in between her fingers as she followed her friends into the room and towards the chairs. Her blue eyes were hard and thoughtful. They hid a mind that calculated all the variables and turned bad situations around into good ones. A mind that could understand everything about a person from a five minute conversation. Hermione had the knowledge, she was the one who applied it. Susan Bones had lost her aunt and last remaining parental unit Amelia Bones to the Death Eater purges, and she had been fighting on her own terms ever since.

They were young, barely into adulthood, and yet in the floodlights they seemed almost as old as Dumbledore. Silently they took their seats as the rest of the court came to order.

"My fellow witches and wizards, today we stand to answer the question of the violence in Britain," Dumbledore intoned, his voice ringing through the silent chamber. "Before us stand six young women who have taken the law into their own hands during a time of war. There have been questions coming from all over about the methods the children have been using, involving Summery Execution, Unlawful Imprisonment, brutal treatment of prisoners and instigating further conflict within a war-torn country. Should their group be declared unlawful, they will have three days to disband and surrender themselves for further judicial evaluation within Britain itself once it has been appropriately restructured."

Dumbledore stood up. "I, for once, do deeply understand the strife and hatred that must have festered within Britain." He said benevolently, "These have been dark times – some of the darkest the country had ever faced. I had personally lead the resistance to Tom Riddle's terrorism within Britain for many years. But when this seemed to be failing, I reluctantly withdrew to seek support. With the number of supporters Voldemort had, there could be no resolution without bloody, long lasting conflict that could possibly destroy every living thing within Britain's borders. I hoped that with a taskforce from the ICW, we could defeat Voldemort with a show of strength and restore order mostly peacefully. I grieve for every death he caused while I was gathering support, and it pleases me that there were some willing to stand up to Tom and defend Hogwarts in my absence. However, I cannot in good conscience abide by this group causing further violence, and executing Voldemort's followers in mass numbers. The end of a war is a time for forgiveness and rebuilding, not Marshall Law or fear of arrest. This will only bring about more violence, and surely much of the deaths could have been avoided had mortal blows been thrown around with such abandon."

Ginny and Lavander looked like they'd love no better then to lunge out of their chairs and tear into Dumbledore when he said this, and Hermione gave both of them a warning look. Her eyes had narrowed dangerously, and she was staring up at Dumbledore with foreboding eyes.

"I only hope that you will be willing to solve this last conflict peacefully, and allow the world to rebuild itself. Justice will be served and wounds will heal." Dumbledore finished, before sitting down again.

There was a moment of silence. Then the Bulgarian Minister cleared his throat. "Shall we hear the defence of the accused? These are serious crimes."

The six girls shared a meaningful look. Hermione turned her head towards Dumbledore and said, "You're wrong," She said flatly. "You've never been more wrong then you are now, _Sir_. I can't believe you'd actually do something like this." She stood up.

"You want to talk about War Crimes? Where were you when muggleborn's parents were rounded up and butchered indiscriminately to draw out their children? Where were you when young muggleborn girls were being given to purebloods as slaves or concubines for their amusement? Where was this 'investigation of war crimes' when the corrupted Ministry issued decrees stripping halfbloods of everything but their breathing rights, where people were murdered in the streets daily? No one was looking out for us. No one was protecting us! We Stunned them and sent them to jail, and their master just broke them out. They never stayed there for more then a month, because the guards were on the monster's side as well."

She paused and then said, "It was war. It was within our rights to fight back with deadly force. Wars are not fought with stunners and disarming spells, and every single person in this room knows this! The alternative is to let them get away, again and again, and let the bodycount rise higher and higher."

There was silence in the room for a moment. Many Ministers looked at each other in horror, while others lowered their heads slightly.

Ginny spoke up. "You abandoned Harry Potter to his death. What exactly did you expect to happen after he killed Voldemort? That this would be a magical cure-all that would cause all his deranged followers to see the light again?" There were scatterings of flinching in the crowd, causing her to snort in disgust.

"That's a personal question, Ms. Weasley, we should refrain from these," The German minister said.

"This isn't personal. Everyone knows that he was preparing Harry to kill Voldemrot from the very beginning." Ginny responded savagely. "Want to know what happened while you were 'chatting' in the safety of this building? They killed each other. And that did nothing to stop the violence. If anything, without their boss to keep them in line the Death Eaters became even more dangerous. The streets were in anarchy and attacking everyone they saw."

"I saw first years tortured and murdered." Lilith said. Her voice was like an icy breeze. "And the men responsible laughing afterwards. Not all Voldemort's followers were coerced. Many of them joined him because they liked killing. Because they enjoyed having absolute power over people."

More muttering. Some people were nodding in agreement while others cast looks Dumbledore's way that weren't entirely friendly. Others were looking at the girls in sympathy, while a few looked torn and indecisive. The general mood of the room was hard to discern.

"Perhaps, but that doesn't mean that you should stoop to their level." Dumbledore said.

"Have you gone senile old man?" Lavander snarled. Her voice came out like a grow, and several of the Aurors tensed. "Have you _seen _what was going on down there, or have you forgotten about what happened the first time you faced that bastard? Fighting back to save the lives off innocent people isn't morally equivalent to torturing, murdering bastard!"

"I'm sure the Germans in this room remember Grindelwald?" Susan asked, appealing to the crowd. There were a few shivers and a number of nods. "Picture that, except worse. Add in many monstrous dark creatures with a taste for human flesh and souls. Imagine one of the darkest wizards to walk your shores with an army of werewolves along with his psychotic supporters."

"I fail to see how that is relevant to the case," Dumbledore began, wanting to deflect attention away from the first real war he had been involved in.

"It's every bit relevant, sir, since Grindelwald is the precursor to Voldemort," Susan retorted. "You fought Grindelwald yourself. You fought his men. And everyone in this room knows that those battles were not fought with stunners. And you yourself have also stated that Voldemort has committed even more evils then Grindelwald."

There was an uneasy pause, and an uptake in grumbling, before one Minister shouted, "What gives you the right to question the ICW's judgement? You're just a bunch of violent upstarts."

"We were the country's only line of defence!" Ginny shouted over the ensuing noise. "I defy any of you to say, who else was protecting Britain? The Death Eaters were walking around in broad daylight and no one was challenging them. People were dying left and right. Our families were killed! These monsters spent years knowing that the best response that anyone would give them for torture and murder is to send them to a place they could easily break out of. The only way they would _ever _stop is if we showed them that there were _real _consequences for killing innocent people!"

This quieted the crowd. "And it worked, as you may have noticed." Susan said calmly in the silence that followed this. "After a few months we rounded up everyone involved with Voldemort's crimes and dealt with them as dictated in military justice. The streets became calm and the Ministry has been cleaned of its corruption."

"This is true," The Japanese Minister remarked, causing more murmurs. People outside the European sector rarely commented on what went on inside their borders. "We've looked at the aftermath. The fatality rate was worse then the original war against Tom Riddle before these young ladies took up arms. After that more people started surviving Riddle's assaults. In fact in the end the number of Death Eater deaths edges out the number of innocents murdered."

"That doesn't include your vigilantly handling of the goblins and the country bank! Or seizing everything inside it," Dumbledore said, hunting for another avenue.

"Stop using the word vigilantly," Hermione said. "It's the wrong term. The Auror force came to us when the Goblins began to very clearly march on the Ministry building. That is an act of war. We were volunteer recruits, and we fought as part of the Auror corps."

"You allowed underage wizards to fight in a potentially deadly battle?" Dumbledore lunged at this piece of information like a cat to a mouse.

"The Aurors had been decimated, like everything else in Britain, in case you haven't noticed," Pavarti said darkly. "Everyone who fought with us had already been in vicious battles and had come out alive. There weren't enough adults who were battle-ready or willing to fight. Our only other option was to sit there and get slaughtered."

"Why did you leave?" Lilith addressed Dumbledore directly. "You were the only wizard Voldemort ever feared. If you had worked with Harry, you could have saved many lives. Why did you leave?"

This brought an eruption of noise and clamour that had Dumbledore banging for order, with a few cries of 'who do yo think you are' that could be picked out among the noise.

However, it seemed to be drowned out by genuine cries of outrage, and sympathy towards the group of girls.

Hermione gestured for silence, and it came like a wing. Dumbledore looked taken aback by this, and stared down at the young woman.

"But surely the human cost-" Dumbledore started.

"The human cost, Dumbledore, is measured by the students of the school who died you left at the hands of the Death Eaters," Hermione responded coolly. "To the centaurs in the forest, who stepped in to help us and died for it nearly to a man. To the mermen, who's lake was boiled in oil and then drained out when they dared help Neville deal with Samson Yaxley. To the muggleborns and half bloods who were fed to Dementors under false accusations of stealing magic and wands. To Harry Potter, who died in agony after destroying Tom Riddle because of the Horcrux in his head. To the muggles who died in the crossfire of a world they couldn't see. Because you weren't there – because _no one _was there – we had to face this threat on our own."

Hermione turned on one heel and began to walk across the floor. "I didn't want to be a warrior, in the beginning," She said. "I don't like killing. I'm not like the trolls or the violent werewolves or Death Eaters that I have fought."

She paused significantly. "I lost my aunt and uncle to Death Eaters. I came home one day to find their home burning. I couldn't even bury them. And I knew, I knew in that moment that they would go through each and every one, not just of the people I hold dear but everyone like me, until they were satisfied."

She turned again and looked back at her friends. "We didn't ask for this," She said loudly. "This is a war we inherited. One we never should have had to fight! But we wouldn't let out friends and families sacrifices go in vain as some sadistic pureblood stepped up to finish what Voldemort started."

Susan nodded and jumped to her feet as well. "If there had been other options – real, result-getting other options – we would have gone for them. But that kind of justice had failed to contain Voldemort before and it would fail to do so again. Ask yourselves, all of you, is this not how you would treat a Dark Lord who threatened your children!"

"Ladies! Please! This is not a propaganda theatre!" Dumbledore exclaimed, trying to regain control of the situation again.

"This isn't propaganda!" Ginny shouted. "This is a stone cold truth!"

"This is vengeance!" Dumbledore responded.

"This is justice!" Lavander snapped back. There was cheering in the stands in response to this. A few Ministers got out of their seats and clapped.

Dumbledore looked very ruffled. This wasn't going the way he had imagined it! He was supposed to punish someone for the loss in pure magical blood, and in the further violence that had occurred after Voldemort's death. And now it looked like these girls had people sympathizing with their methods!

He had had such high hopes for Hermione when she had first entered Hogwarts, as a model muggleborn who he could use to convince purebloods that muggleborns were undeserving of the contempt they gave their muggle parents. But now she had been assimilated into the line of thought that was worthy of dark wizards!

"I, for one," The American Minister said with a hint of dark amusement, "am of the line of thought that we should address the very clear war crimes committed by Riddle and his followers before we go accusing the ones who defeated him of the same things."

"Yes!" One woman yelled. "Investigate the murdering scum first!"

"Hear! Hear!" Another yelled. There were mutters and calls of agreement following this. The court was being won over.

This earned some laughter and a smirk from Lavander and Ginny.

Dumbledore reddened. "I also think that these young ladies have a valid point," The American continued, "In that you were conspicuously absent from Britain in a time when Voldemort was making it clear that he was going on an offensive in the very near future. What, exactly, were you expecting to happen?"

"I was expecting that we would be the better men," Dumbledore said, "I think we can all agree that that is the best way we could avoid creating a new Dark Lord." _Or Dark Lady_, were the words that went unspoken.

There was a silence in the air as everyone processed this. Pavarti and Lavander's eyes widened as they processed the slur, and Hermione gestured quickly to keep them from saying anything that could damage the position they were building. Lilith's eyes had taken a frigid look that everyone had come to associate with danger. Ginny's jaw was locked with anger and Susan rocked back in her seat. She knew she had to speak before they did.

Hermione smiled coldly at Dumbledore. "You need to do your history, Dumbledore. The Allied forces used lethal force to overcome Nazi Germany. That didn't turn America or Britain into the new Nazi homeland, did it?"

Anyone who knew anything about muggle history all nodded in agreement to this. It even earned some more clapping.

"We fought our own war," Hermione said, "And we've won it. We committed no actions that were outside of the War Measures Act that existed since the war on Gellert Grindelwald. This is clearly just an attempt of an old man who has forgotten how wars are fought to forgive the guilty at the expense of the innocent. The war is over and we are now rebuilding our world. We merely wish to be able to do so in peace."

With those words, the six Huntresses were released and allowed to return home. Dumbledore tried to catch one of the girls on the way out to have a more forceful word with them, but Lilith's touch sent him scrambling backwards before they activated their portkeys.

**The Ministry Building, the Room with the Veil**

Su Li was waiting for her leaders with some of the other Huntresses, a long table and several glasses of scotch. She was always the first one to organize dinner or drinks after branches of the Huntresses came back from missions or civic duties, and those who visited always complemented her cooking and the drinks she mixed.

She wasn't the only one there; Daphne Thomas nee Greengrass, Hannah Longbottom nee Abbott, Tracy Davis, Hestia and Flora Carrow, Cho Chang, Sally-Anne Perks and Morag MacDougal were all waiting for them. They were the closest and the oldest ranks of the Huntresses, and they had waited in this room for hours for their friends return. Having death so close by in the form of the Veil had given them a strange sort of peace, and they had taken to haunting the room in after hours.

Upon seeing their fellow warrior's expressions, Su and Tracy poured a generous amount of scotch and held out the glasses to the returning girls. Ginny and Susan accepted them without a word. Hermione just tiredly sat down and pulled the closest glass to her across the table. Lavander flopped into her chair and glared at her tankard as though it had personally offended her, a low, threatening growl rumbling in her throat.

"How'd it go?" Tracey Davis asked. She had been the first pureblood child of one of Voldemort's inner circle who dared to refuse the Mark and live to tell the tale. It was thanks to Ginny that she managed to escape her house alive – Bellatrix had tried to kill her, but Ginny had given her a hidden portkey that allowed her to escape.

"Albus Percival Wulfric Brain Dumbledore has some fucking nerve!" Lavander spat out after taking a generous swing of alcohol. "That old yellow-bellied bastard!"

Pavarti sat down next to Lavander and put her hand on the girl's arm. Lavander growled again, causing Pavarti's grip to tighten. Lavander's temper had become a dangerous thing after becoming part werewolf, and Pavarti seemed to be the only one who could truly mediate it. They had been best friends for years and she had been the first person to approach Lavander without fear or disgust after she had been scarred.

Lilith slid onto the table next to Cho Chang and shifted her bracelets, her breath coming out raggedly. The Ravenclaw girl wrapped her arms around her shoulders and murmured comforting words. A cold wind blew through the room, and ice formed on the table under Lilith's fingers.

Cho had been the first person to react to Harry's death when the boy-who-lived fell on the battlefield. Loosing Cedric had been a painful blow, but before Hogwarts itself was attacked, she had mostly coped by weeping often. In the moment when the Death Eaters had begun to hoot and mock Harry's death, she had taken her wand and blown Lucius's Malfoy's head clean off his shoulders. She had been right behind Susan and Lavander in every fight afterwards.

"Badly, then," Daphne deadpanned, cutting up some corn with a knife. She had been betrayed by her pureblood fanatic parents when she fell in love with Dean Thomas, a muggleborn. Her younger sister Astoria had joined her when Draco Malfoy murdered Dean, sending both girls on a rampage through the upper floors of Hogwarts, leaving a trail of dead bodies behind them. Astoria was currently working with the other Huntresses back at the fortress that used to be their school.

"Somehow, I knew it wasn't going to go easily." Su Li said ruefully. "Things never go smoothly for us. The battle for Gringotts is probably the most conclusive victory we ever one. The others were too heavily laden with problems to count, I think."

"We felt the other ones," Tracy agreed. "But this one will cause more problems then all the monsters we've been hunting put together, if the worst has happened." She looked apprehensively at Susan.

"They're going to press the charges?" Hestia Carrow ventured. One of her eyes was blue and the other green, and an ugly cursed scar ran from the side of her head down to her jawline – just the tip of the iceberg and one of many marks that being Aletco Carrow's daughter had left on her. It had taken Hermione's compassion and support that gave Hestia the courage to finally stand up to her torturing, murdering mother. And eventually kill her.

There were various noises of anger around the table, many of the girls putting their hands on their wands or their respective weapons.

Flora Carrow, perpetually messy dirty blonde hair looking more ragged then usual, made a grab for another glass, but Hestia pinned her hand to the table, "No, Flora, you've had plenty already."

Flora glared daggers at her younger sister. She depended quite heavily on drinking to keep away the memories of being tortured horribly by her own uncle because she had stayed and fought on the side of the Hogwarts students during the battle. She had sustained some of the worst injuries in the battle, and had clung to life out of sheer tenacity and rage, cursing every hooded individual unfortunate enough to cross her line of vision with a few things she picked up from her mother. Then she learned to fight with knives and making sure she didn't drink too much became Hestia's priority.

Hestia raised an eyebrow, and Flora sat back sulkily in her chair. Su Li patted Flora on the arm, earning herself a dirty look as well, one that went ignored out of long practice.

Hermione gave a long sigh. "No. They aren't." A ripple of relief went through the table. "We managed to make it clear that these charges were ludicrous and trumped up. We're safe for now. I imagine that a few dissatisfied members – and they were there – are going to try again. They're outnumbered, through, and I think they know it. But I can't believe Dumbledore..." She raised one hand in the air in a defeated gesture.

Lilith gave a barely noticeable shake of her head. She had known that the old Hermione had worshipped authority figures, but she had thought she had gotten over that when she finally found out the extension of Dumbledore's manipulation and twisted sense of morality.

"I could," Sally Anne Perks, who had spent every year since her third year at Hogwarts trying to escape from the torture cell of the Malfoy's, said with a spite-filled tone. Dumbledore hadn't been very attentive to the roster of students at his school, it had taken up to Hermione's sixth year for anyone to notice that she was gone – and that's when she stumbled onto platform nine and three quarters, more dead then alive. "He abandoned us to fight the battle without him, remember?"

"Of course," Hermione murmured, taking another slow drink. There was a soft whisper from the Veil. "I just...he really was the leader of the Light around here. He left, saying that he needed to get support...but why couldn't he get it in time to save Harry? Or Padma? Or Ron? O-Or," Her voice choked a bit and she took another hard drink.

Ginny shook her head, having taken a good drink. "That's true, but not what Hermione's getting at." She said heavily. "When we were all in school, we all looked up to him. He seemed to have all the answers, and he actually wanted to protect us, unlike the Ministry."

Flora snorted darkly. "He was never going to complete this war alive," She said, her voice slurred. "He was always a _peacemaker_. He'd rather wave a white flag and let Riddle get away with everything he'd done if it meant that he could kill as few of Riddle's followers as possible."

Morag gave Flora a look that plainly said, _that's really not helpful _before turning back to Hermione, Susan and Ginny. She had been a beater on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team and now she wielded a siege hammer with deadly precision. "You think they won't leave us alone?"

Susan was staring down at a plate full of corn. She looked like she wanted to eat, but didn't think she would be able to swallow over the emotions swirling around inside her. "No. I don't. Dumbledore still thinks he's going to save Britain even though it's four damned years to late for that. He doesn't believe we did the right thing."

"We did the only thing we could," Sally responded viciously.

"How did he think war worked? By moving tiny chess pieces on a board in his office and having everything just fall into line?" Su asked sarcastically.

"I think that's his way of tolerating how wrong everything's gone. Go into denial. Pass the blame off to someone else's handling of the situation." Daphne said coolly. "Accepting that we were forced to fight like that means accepting that his entire approach to this war cost more lives then it saved. And the greatest wizard since Merlin can't have that, can he?"

"At least Neville's going to talk to the ICW tomorrow," Hannah sighed. She was the most proficient Healer in the Huntresses. "He can make them see that this is domestic business now. If they were going to intervene on war crimes, they should have started on that four years ago."

"That's what really gets me," Lilith said coldly. "They watch us fight for our lives for four years, and only when we have even the slightest chance of rebuilding..._that_'s when they come in, looking to hand out punishments for 'war crimes'. If we hadn't already dealt with Draco, I would have pointed them to him first."

Tracy nodded in agreement. There was a sombre silence.

"It brings back memories, huh?" Lavander said softly. "Seeing that old guy again. It made me think of the days when half the people we knew weren't dead."

Ginny and Hermione nodded slightly, staring fixedly on the table. They were thinking about Harry and Ron, back when they were young and whole, back before everything went so wrong...

Su Li gave a slight sob, and leaned against Tracy. Tracy squeezed the younger girl's hand in a gesture of silent support.

"If only we had known this would happen." Pavarti said sadly. "I-I miss Padma so much..." She gave a hard sob, and Lavander put an arm around her shoulder. Twins tended to be even closer then most, and Padma's death had rattled Pavarti more then anything else. "If my Sight had woken up earlier..."

"Hey," Susan said firmly. "Even with your Sight, I don't think you could have seen just how badly everything would get eff-ed up now, Pavarti. Don't you dare put all the blame on yourself."

Hestia stared down at Flora's empty tankards, her sister having zoned out from the alcohol and depression. "I should have done something about Alecto and Amycus sooner," She whispered. "They were in my hands all those times..."

Flora made a noise. "They were still our family. What the hell could we have done? They were always so strong, and insane, and we were so terrified..." She growled and sat up straight. "Damn it Hestia, give me another drink."

This time, Hestia didn't object.

Cho Chang sighed. "If we could go back and tell ourselves what we know now, of course things would be different," She said. "We can't help wishing. Time has passed, and we're stuck here. The best we can do is try to change our future."

Morag nodded in agreement, but her eyes were downcast. "Huh. It would have been dad's birthday tomorrow. Funny. I think he would have talked to Dumbledore on our behalf if he was still with us..."

Ginny didn't say anything. She put her head down in her arms. Her shoulders shook with the force of her restrained sobs. She was thinking about her dead siblings and parents. The once-large Weasley family had been reduced to its last member, and the scars of that weighed heavily on her during the darker days.

Hermione looked at the bottom of her glass, having drained it dry. Her parents weren't dead. But they were dead to her. With all the muggleborns being targeted, she had gone to them and wiped their memories of her clean, changed their names and sent them to Australia. It was the only thing that saved their lives. When they had finally defeated the Goblins, Hermione had gone to see them, only to discover that in her absence, they had another child. A girl. One that they had also named Hermione.

She knew it was too late to change them back. She had chosen her life path and couldn't go back. But sometimes, sometimes she would portkey to Sydney and just watch them, unseen, playing with their younger daughter on the front lawn. Susan had gone with her the third time, because she was convinced that Hermione was going to hurt herself.

Tracy blinked. "Can you girls hear that?"

There was a pause and complete silence. And then -

then a pulse, sweeping through the room. There was a long, soft note of sadness, that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Sally jumped, and looked around. Su Li looked around warily and cast a few detection charms.

"There's no one in here but us," She said. "It's probably just the Veil. It gets this way sometimes."

There was another pause.

"I wish we could go back," Hermione muttered, more to herself then anyone else in the room.

Then something happened.

There was another pulse, this one so powerful that everyone felt it. The Huntresses jumped to their feet just as the Veil pulsed blue, and filled the chamber with light.

**In that same Chamber, in another world**

Harry's heart was pounding as he stared up at the sneering face of Lucius Malfoy and his outstretched hand, demanding the prophecy. Around him, Death Eaters were holding their wands to the necks of his friends, those who had volunteered to go with him on this mad quest that had turned out to be a trap. One he had walked right into.

Now what? He didn't want to give him the prophecy, but if he didn't they would certainly kill all his friends to make a point. No matter what he did, the result would be painful and dangerous for Britain. Oh, why had he come here tonight?

Suddenly, the Veil flashed, causing many to scream and cover their eyes to the best of their abilities. The flash was followed by a pulse, so violent Harry was thrown off his feet. The prophecy fell out of his fingers and smashed against the floor.

He didn't know what happened next, but the room exploded. Lucius Malfoy screamed, first with rage, then shock and then agony. Similar cries rang out around the room, too old to be his friend – and suddenly the air was freezing cold.

Harry, stumbling to his feet, blinked his eyes a few times and stared in disbelief at the scene in front of him.

A young woman with silver hair was holding her hands up, golden bracelets lying at the floor at her feet. The air had indeed gone as cold as winter wind, because that was now what was whipping through the chamber, throwing death eaters around like rag dolls and freezing some of their limbs.

A woman with blonde hair let out a savage roar more appropriate for a wolf and threw herself at the man who'd been threatening Luna. The man was smashed against the floor and suddenly there was blood all over his neck.

Bellatrix had been frozen to a wall, before she disaparated only to be smashed out of the air by a beam of golden light. A young woman with dark hair and dark skin descended on her, eyes alive with a fury and hatred that would make McGonagall shiver, and a vicious duel began, one where the stranger was actually holding her own.

Then she was joined by a ratty looking woman with dirty blonde hair, and after a second the impossible happened, and Bellatrix was sent sprinting down the hall. The other fighters shared one look and gave chase, one shouting angry challenges in a language Harry didn't know.

The silver haired girl directed a blast of freezing at at Harry – no, it was something behind his head. Harry spun around and saw that Lucius had gotten up, and now his face was a medley of terror, pain and shock. Ice had struck his wand arm and his leg, freezing him to the ground.

Something hard grabbed his wrist, he turned again and saw a warrior with the same ratty hair as the one who'd chased Bellatrix snap, "Keep your guard up, kid! This isn't a Quidditch match!" With that, he was yanked to her side as she threw something. There was a whistle before the knife was embedded in Lucius's chest. The man disaparated.

The woman cursed. "My aim was off. If I hadn't been drinking earlier, he'd be dead!" She growled. "This is too damned weird – I could have sworn that was Lucius Malfoy -"

"Hestia! Heads up!" Harry turned and saw a man drop dead behind Hestia, an axe buried in his back. Yet another young was standing not far from him, reddish blonde hair and brown eyes, looking inexplicably familiar to Harry despite her alien appearance. A shaken Ginny was being hold protectively under one arm.

"Thanks Morag!" Hestia yelled back. "The other kids?"

"Daphne's got the redhaired boy, Lavander and Su have got two others and Tracy's following the other leaders! We're getting there!"

"Is this all of them?" Hestia demanded, hurrying to Morag's side.

Morag vehemently shook her head and pointed. "There are more of these bastards coming up the stairs! Goddamned Death Eater impersonators."

"They aren't impersonators," Harry said desperately, finally finding his voice "They're the real deal! I swear! I came here because I thought Voldemort was here!"

"That's impossible," The woman holding him – Hestia, Harry thought to himself – exclaimed, pulling him along the hall as spells whirled around him. "Tom Riddle's been dead for four years! We wiped him and his worthless followers out!"

"They came back!" Harry said, before something occurred to him. Something this person shouldn't know. "Wait – you know Voldemort's muggle name?"

"How could you not know? It was publicized like nothing else for the past four-" Hestia started angrily, turning to look at Harry. Abruptly, she stopped mid sentence, looking at him as though just processing his appearance. Before Harry could blink twice, she grabbed his chin and held it up, staring at his forehead.

"This is impossible," She whispered. "Harry."

There was something familiar about the way she said his name that did not make sense to Harry at all. He didn't know these people, and he was getting more confused by the second. "Of course I'm Harry. Who else would I be?"

"You're dead." Hestia said.

"What?"

There was an enormous crash outside, followed by more screaming. Harry desperately scanned the room; these new attackers were filing out, Harry's friends being pushed behind random warriors as they gave chase.

"Hestia, looks like Hermione's decided to follow those monsters," Morag commented. "We can figure out who the hell can create an illusion of Harry Potter when we've hunted down these copycat killers."

Hestia cursed, "Missing the action – figure out this later – come on, kid!"

With that, both girls disapparated. Harry felt a horrible twisting sensation as he was pulled along with them. It didn't last long, but it sent him stumbling against the nearest wall when it ended. Someone else touched his hand, and Harry recognized Ron's fingers. He blinked the stars out from his eyes and stared at the scene.

There were more female warriors – he could just barely count fifteen in total – whirling around the room. The Death Eaters were fighting them, but to Harry's shock after a few seconds it was clear that they were wickedly outmatched.

Frost was filling the room, freezing the Ministry fountain. The walls of the Atrium room were getting bloodstains all over them. There were already over a dozen bodies on the floor, clearly either dead or in no condition to get up and move around.

"Bloody hell," Ron said weakly as he watched the blonde and frankly wolf-like woman slam a death eater into the ground with nothing but her brute strength and hear a wince-inducing _crack_. A woman with hair as red as his and Ginny's was throwing around fire curses with such precision that Hermione let out a noise of awe. The two women with ratty hair – sisters, they must be, Harry realized – were fighting back to back, laying waste to anyone who approached them. The group was working together like a well-oiled war machine.

"They have no chance," Neville whispered, blinking as though he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "I can't...who _are _these people?"

"I don't know," Luna murmured. "But they feel kind of familiar, don't they? Look at that one, Ginny. That one looks just like you."

Ginny squeaked when she picked out one of the three redheads. Luna was right – the young woman looked almost identical to Ginny! Though the youngest Weasley had a temper, they had never seen her fight like _this_. There was a blazing rage to her eyes that Ginny had only showed a shadow of.

Hermione made a noise and whispered, "that brown haired girl – the, the one at the front. Look at her. That -"

Harry followed her eyes. The woman that Hermione was staring at had more then a passing resemblance to her. It was like he was looking at Hermione's mother. But that couldn't be right. Hermione's mother was a muggle, she couldn't use magic. Not like this.

"They saved us," Harry whispered as the last masked murderer fell.

The group of young women looked around further, and then broke their ranks, checking each other for injuries. They talked, quietly enough that Harry and his friends couldn't hear him although they were straining to.

The brown haired leader looked around. She looked as though she thought she was in a dream, her eyes flicking all around the atrium. "This is...this is fifth year." She stammered out. "This is a perfect replication of fifth year."

Harry and Ron exchanged bewildered looks. Fifth year? Had this girl been a Hogwarts student? What else could that mean?

The bushy haired woman took a shaky step towards the fountain, and stared up at the posters of Cornelius Fudge. "Look, that's Cornelius Fudge."

"I saw Lucius Malfoy." Hestia volunteered. "But he's dead!"

"So's Bellatrix Lestrange," The dark girl said hatefully, "But I definitely saw her too...I'd recognize that bitch anywhere."

"But we know these people are dead," Hestia's ratty looking sister growled. "We dealt with them as thoroughly as possible. And how could this possibly be fifth year? Time Travel magic doesn't work as far back as this, at least not anything we use today!"

"Time Travel?" Neville hissed, watching their rescuers with equal parts of bewilderment and apprehension. Harry could understand that. These women had decimated some of the most dangerous wizards known to Britain as though they did such things every day; Harry couldn't see how they were supposed to escape if the warriors decided to keep them around.

"True," The warrior who had saved Ron said uneasily, running one hand through long, brilliant blonde hair. "But something's happened, there's no doubt about that. Unless Astoria did some weird redecorating while we were at the ICW meeting."

"Somehow I don't think Cornelius Fudge and Death Eater wannabes factor into your sister's ideas of interior decorating. I mean, we know she has better taste." the wolf-like woman said.

"They certainly weren't in the room before that weird pulse," Morag agreed. "Susan, Sally, didn't you hear something whispering before that flash?"

"Astoria? Morag? Susan?" Hermione murmured. "I've heard those names before. But I can't..." Her brow furrowed like it often did when she was thinking hard.

"I did, but I couldn't make anything out," The woman named Susan said, with Sally nodding next to her. "Lilith, you're the expert in ancient magics, does this make any sense to you?"

"There was a tug, as if we were being moved from one pane to the next," The silver-haired ice girl, Lilith, said. "I'm not sure if I can explain it, or if I fully understand it. It went by too fast." She looked around. "But it does look like the old ministry. Not ours. Did you recognize anyone else?"

"I hit the guy holding a blonde girl hostage," The wolf-like girl threw her story in. "I didn't have time to recognize him she...she looked so much like L-L-Luna, I – I completely lost my head when I saw his wand at her throat." She stumbled over Luna's name as though it were painful to say. Nearby, Luna's eyebrows raised slightly.

"I helped a boy who looked like a younger version of Neville," Morag said, biting her lip. "But that can't be right, unless Neville was doing something during his summers before he married Hannah that we don't want to know about."

Neville's face went bright red.

"I thought I saw Ron." A woman with Chinese ancestry said softly. "I dragged him out of the room, but I didn't have a chance to ask him anything before the reinforcements showed up."

The redhead who resembled Ginny went rigid, like someone had hit her with a binding spell. The entire group turned around, until they were looking at Harry and his friends.

Harry realized that none of the women had looked at their faces for very long – they had simply seen children in danger and tossed them out of the way as quickly as possible.

But now they were looking, and their faces turned from confusion to shock to disbelieving incomprehension.

Ron, surprisingly, was the first person to regain his courage. He took a few steps off the wall and asked, "Erm, thanks for saving us and everything, but what exactly are you talking about?"

The redhead disappeared with a crack and reappeared right in front of Ron. Everyone gasped.

She looked almost identical to Ginny, but extremely battered; there were scars on her face and her body was built much differently. But her cheekbones and her bright brown eyes and her fiery read hair were all the same. Those brown eyes that were wide, staring down in a wild hope, hardly daring to believe. "..._Ron_?"

"How do you-" Ron started to ask, but he never got to finish. The redhead snatched him up in her arms and hugged him for dear life, her shoulders shaking and her head buried in his shoulder. Ron yelped in surprise.

There were a series of cracks as the other woman warriors came over to join her. The wolf like girl made a strangled noise when she got a good look at Luna again. The dark girl blinked and looked down at Hermione and Ginny, dark eyes wide.

The brown haired leader, however, was looking at Harry. Now Harry could see her face, a painful familiarity was welling up in his stomach. She had the same nose, eyes, hair and face as his bookish best friend.

The redhead put Ron down again and staggered backwards a bit. "This isn't possible," She said numbly.

"And yet apparently it is," The woman called Susan murmured, her eyes sweeping across the students there. "You have no idea how good it is to see all of you..."

"I don't understand! Who _are _you people?" Hermione asked, her voice shaking.

There was a series of cracks. In one fluid movement, the women warriors surrounded Harry and his friends in a defensive ring as one by one, members of the Order of the Phoenix appeared in the Ministry Atrium, wands out. Harry's heart squeezed when he saw Sirius bound into the room, clearly meaning to go to him but deterred by the armed women who had put themselves between him and the students.

"It's alright," Luna said, her voice soft but carrying in the silence. "These people saved us. Friendly strangers, this is the Order of the Phoenix. They're supposed to fight Death Eaters, but you did their job for them this time."

The woman who looked like Ginny swallowed hard, staring at Bill Weasley. The Order looked around the room, flabbergasted, taking in the bodies of death eaters lying around everywhere. Disbelief took many of them and they gaped, both at the room and then at the strangers.

"You did all this?" Kingsley was the first one to recover his wits and address the female warriors.

The wolf-like woman nodded curtly. The apparent leaders of the group seemed to be in shock, so she decided to speak for them. "You bet. They won't be murdering and torturing anyone else again. Malfoy and the Lestrange bitch got away by the skin of their teeth, though."

"I wouldn't expect any less from them," Sirius said darkly. He pointed at Harry and his friends. "You saved them?"

"Of course we did," Lilith said, her voice having the frigid air reminiscent of the ice she had wielded so deftly in the room with the Veil. "They're children. We never would have left them."

"Where do you come from?" Bill asked. "You aren't dressed like Aurors."

Morag frowned and said, "That's a bit more complicated to explain."

"Who are you?" Remus asked eventually, after a moment of silence.

The brown haired leader simply looked at him and Sirius for a long moment. "We're the Huntresses of Magical Britain. I am Hermione Granger. And these are my sisters in battle. Ginny Weasley. Lavander Brown. Pavarti Patil. Su Li. Daphne Thomas nee Greengrass. Hannah Longbottom, nee Abbott. Su Li. Tracy Davis. Susan Bones. Morag MacDougal. Lilith Moon. Hestia and Flora Carrow. Cho Chang. And Sally-Anne Perks."

Each woman nodded in their turn. The older Hermione Granger smiled ever so slightly at the stunned crowd and said, "It's been a long time since we've seen any of you." Her smile vanished at this. "Alive, that is."

**End Chapter**

**This idea jumped into my head after reading Order of the Phoenix again. This story will be updated more slowly then my high priority ones, but I do promise updates. **

**Read and Review please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Huntress**

**Moon: Here's the next chapter! I've got a quick question for my readers about this story - I hadn't intended for there to be much romance in this story outside of a few couples mentioned here and there, but it occurred to me that there actually is room for it. Should it be there? Or not? Also, there is at least one femslash pairing in here, but it isn't dominant. I do not own Harry Potter. Enjoy! **

**Chapter 2: Dark Tales**

"Well," Tracey said. "This is unexpected."

Morag snorted. "Understatement of the century, Trace."

Once the Order of the Phoenix had gotten over the initial shock of Hermione's statement, there had been a mini explosion of babble among its members over whether or not they could believe what the young women were saying. The Huntresses had just stood by, because it was such a Order thing to argue over over little minute detail before doing anything about the problem standing right in front of them. It was one of their less endearing qualities, and certainly something it had shared with Dumbledore. That much made sense, because the group had started as Dumbledore's personal fanclub.

Eventually the group recovered its collective wits. Shakabolt had shakily demanded identification before he believed that they were who they said. Su had smiled dryly and asked whether he'd prefer Pensieve Memories or Legilimency, though she really wouldn't recommend the latter. It was a health hazard. This earned some dark chuckling from the other Huntresses.

In the end they went for a different tactic.

Bill grilled the Huntress Ginny extensively with questions that only his family or little sister would have been able to answer; the older girl answered every one of them correctly all while watching her eldest brother with something like loving amazement. A little shaken, Bill declared that she was telling the truth. Each girl in turn gave personal information to the Order that proved them to be who they said they were.

The Order then busied themselves gathering up the bodies of the Death Eaters, identifying them and dragging them away for burial/interrogation in one of the secure cells of the Ministry. Tracey went with them, buffing up the defenses around the cell itself and telling them who couldn't be trusted to guard the doors and who could be.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&&%%&

Harry and his friends just stared at the girls the entire time, only breaking up to talk to each other. The combination of shock and exhaustion was not a good one. Hermione, for one, looked at the older version of her as though she were seeing her own ghost. Ginny couldn't look at the older her for very long without going slightly green.

The older Hannah had stepped back to treat various injuries and scrapes the kids had sustained over their trip. There were so many questions they wanted to ask but awe and shock kept their mouths locked shut.

Neville had some very strange reactions to seeing an older version of a friend from school, He often ended up staring at her and looking her up and down in a way that made him blush hotly and bury his face in his hands whenever she caught him. The older Hannah seemed mildly amused by this, and continued her work regardless.

"So this is real?" Harry said nervously at one point. "You all really are..." His voice trailed off. His eyes were following the older Hermione and Ginny where they were talking with the Order Members and a few Ministry employees.

"It's a bit much right now, I imagine, but yes, we are." Hannah said briskly, "Even we're not sure exactly what just happened, but Lilith and Sally and Su are looking into it right now. We'll be able to figure it out in time."

"But how?" The younger Hermione asked timidly. "I thought time travel magic was impossible."

"Nothing we use today should be able to take us back as far as this," Hannah agreed. "So something else has happened. I'm afraid we don't really understand it yet either. Lilith is on it now. You'll have to wait for a little."

"Lilith..." the younger Ginny turned and watched the silver haired girl casting a spell in the air and then staring at the results.

"She's in your year at Hogwarts," Hannah responded.

"Was that elemental magic she used earlier?" Hermione ventured cautiously.

Hannah chuckled a bit. When everyone looked at her, she smiled and said, "No matter what world I'm in, you'll always be miss I-want-to-know-more Hermione Granger. That's nice to know." Hermione blushed fiercely and dropped her gaze. "It's a kind of elemental magic, but I'm afraid it's not that simple. Lilith will tell you in time if she feels inclined to."

There was a pause as the older Hannah gently applied some healing slave to Neville's cheek. Not too far away, Lilith was talking urgently to Susan and Hermione. A few moments later, Hermione walked back to speak with Remus and Mad-Eye.

"You really are Hannah Abbott." Luna said, just sounding curious. It would be just like Luna to not even blink at the strangest of situations. "I know that the Hannah at school is starting to learn Healing magic."

"That would be about right," Hannah responded, giving Luna a warm smile. There was an odd look in her eyes when she spoke to Luna, as though addressing a friend she hadn't seen in decades. "I started practicing around the end of my fifth year. I got proficient in my sixth right before I started to respond to emergencies."

"So all you girls...are older versions of us?" Ginny asked, biting her lip, seeking some certainty. She was holding her arm out to Hannah, who poured a healing drought along the long scar on it.

"Yes," Hannah responded.

"That's Lavander Brown?" The other girls overheard Ron say nervously. "But...what happened to her face?"

The older Lavander's lips twitched slightly, and she tipped her head towards Ron. The boy looked appropriately embarrassed at being heard and stared straight down at his shoes. "That's not for me to tell you," Hannah responded quietly.

"Sorry," Ron gulped.

Hannah's lips quirked slightly. "You wouldn't have been Ron Weasley if you hadn't asked a question like that."

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&&

Lavander shook her head and glanced back at Pavarti. The other Huntresses were milling around, either talking to the Order Members or just meandering around, staring at the ceiling.

"They'll find out eventually," Pavarti said. "It depends on what happens next."

"I know. Doesn't make it any less fucking irritating that _that _is everyone's first question when they meet me. 'Oooh, what happened to your face'? Especially when it has the 'that's fucking hideous' tag that they're not saying out loud. I hate explaining it over and over, going back to that day in my head." Lavander bit out, fingers clenching and unclenching.

"He doesn't mean anything by it," Pavarti said soothingly. "Remember this was before you were ever attacked, remember? Someone was bound to ask."

Lavander snorted, and Pavarti wrapped her arm around the other girls and leaned her head against her shoulder for a moment. She only straightened up when a low purr rumbled in the depths of Lavander's throat.

"Tease," Lavander muttered. Pavarti giggled.

"Easy you two, we're in public," Susan said in amusement, walking over to them. "Hermione's chatting with the Order about how we're going to handle this situation."

"Right. Speaking of which, what _does_ happen next, Susan?" Lavander asked, turning her head towards the short haired woman. "What's going on, exactly?"

They hadn't left the Ministry Atrium, which had been chaos central when Cornelius and the rest of the Ministry workers had entered the building to see a good number of clearly identified Death Eaters all lying on the floor, dead or dying. This, of course, had been in direct conflict with Fudge's continued insistence that the Dark Lord's followers were no more, so there was some panic in the room that Shakabolt and Tonks had been tasked with dispelling. And at least someone had tried to hex the Ministry over the situation that had become apparent, something a very amused Su Li had to release him from, sputtering and adjusting his bowler hat, looking for a way out of this mess.

Cornelius had said that it was likely these were just a bunch of bold throwbacks. The Huntresses all looked noticeably aggravated when he said this, eyes flashing. They volunteered to prove to him that the truth was out.

A few of the attackers had survived, as the older Hermione had expected, and it was here that Susan stepped in. She gave them a truth potion with the entire congregation of the Ministry as witnesses and asked why they were here. Under interrogation they admitted that there were here on orders from Lord Voldemort. This caused a good deal of panic, and Fudge seemed to realize that this was the end of his tenure as Minister of Magic.

The older Ginny had argued with Sirius and Mad-Eye at length that Azkaban wasn't an appropriate place to put them, because of the breakouts. Sirius protested that Azkaban was the safest prison in the world, he would know because he had been wrongly placed there. Older Ginny told them that Voldemort would just break them out, citing the number of times where that had happened in their world. In the end, Mad-Eye apparently praised her as 'sensible, unlike some people' and ordered the Death Eaters to be transported to temporary holding cells.

"I'm not sure," Susan admitted with a scowl. "I hate to say it, but we're in the lurch as it is right now. Sirius is more then willing to accommodate us, because we defeated these death eaters and protected Harry and his friends, but I'm uncertain of exactly what we should do next. Or how the rest of the Order is going to react to our presence here."

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Flora demanded, a glass of firewhiskey having inexplicably appeared in her hand as she ambled over towards Susan. "We're in another world or some damn fool thing, but here the guys we had to kill are still waltzing around free! And before they got to murder and torture people legally."

She put her free hand on her hip near her wand and dagger holsters and smirked in a way that reminded Susan of hungry wolves. "There are still Death Eaters here, we go out and kill them all!"

The ratty haired girl's eyes were filled with a maniac energy that she didn't show often in the days after the battle of Hogwarts. "You said it yourself, Bella-bitch and Lucky got away from us. I never did get to pay them back for helping mummy dearest torture me for years last time!"

"Oi, slow down Flora," Su Li said. "It's not that easy."

Flora took a swig of her drink. "Why not?" She asked sweetly, in a way that promised violence.

"Their current strategy might have changed since their assault on the prophecy failed so utterly, and we don't have clearance to do anything in this world yet." Susan responded.

"We never had clearance," Flora retorted. "Hell, you got dragged to the ICW because you didn't 'have clearance', remember? That never stopped us before."

"True, but we can't go rushing off without any information." Hestia told her sister, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Besides, the government is still running here, and we don't have the rest of the Huntresses for backup." She bit her lip slightly at the reminder. "I really hope Tori and Lisa won't mind running our place until we can find a way back."

"You know Tori. She'll be fine," Flora said dismissively. "But we're here, and so are they."

"It's worth mentioning," Morag remarked, walking over to join them. "That the Death Eaters aren't the only people here who are still alive. Back there, that's Harry and Ron and Luna. They're all alive now, before they ever had to fight a war."

There was a pause as the group of warriors turned around to where Hannah was still kneeling with the group of young wizards. Old friends and innocent children who had suffered and died long before their time.

"It's so weird seeing them again," Su Li admitted.

"It's weird being older then them," Susan added to that, blinking as she looked at Harry. This earned a slightly drunken giggle from Flora and a reproachful look from Hestia. "But they're definitely here. It...it's kind of surreal, you know?"

This earned some scattered nodding, the mood having gone rather somber. "There's a part of me that want to talk to them about everything that's happened." Su admitted. "But it wouldn't mean anything to them, would it? They're not the same people we lost."

Lavander grimaced and said, "There've been a few moments where I feel like someone's prodding me with hot pokers when I see them." She reached up with one hand and absently touched one of the scars on her face.

"What's Hermione's opinion of all this, Morag?" Susan asked.

"The Order of the Phoenix has agreed to house us," the older Hermione declared, having finally finished her conversation with the Order. She had come up behind Susan just as she asked the question. Lilith, Ginny, Tracey, Daphne and Sally walked over with her. Hannah finished her examination of the younger Harry and his friends, and walked back to join them with Cho Chang next to her.

"They have?" Hestia asked in surprise. "Wow. Okay."

"I...wasn't expecting that," Susan said, blinking. "But that's a good thing for us."

Lilith nodded. "I understand what happened now. We _are _in an alternate dimension."

"Alternate dimension?" Flora echoed. "Can we have that in simple English terms for the rest of us?"

Lilith rolled her eyes, but there was no bite in her stare when she looked back at Flora. "We're not certain exactly how it works. The idea is our world is intertwined with magic itself. Every decision made can effect time and the future, in minor ways or major, depending on the person and the decision. And because of this, there are times when a 'reflection' is cast, and this reflection becomes another world."

"Like the one we're standing in now," Tracey summarized.

"Yes. It seems we were also sent back several years in time in this dimension instead of arriving in parallel." Lilith added.

Cho Chang took another look around. "Funny. Any idea how to get back? Is that possible? Or is this a one-way trip?"

"There are ways," Lilith responded, sounding uneasy, "But it would take a good deal of time for me to figure them out, and a lot of power to run the spells necessary."

"Can you give me a time frame?" Hermione asked her expert in ancient magic.

"Months, possibly," Lilith responded. There were scattered groans from the girls. "But nothing under a year. However, if I do the calculations correctly, I should be able to send us back to our world at the exact moment that we left it."

"That would be for the best," Ginny said at last. "Will you be needing anything in particular?"

"Just a good number of books from the Black library," Lilith responded. She and a few others had spent a good amount of time in the library of Sirius's parents looking for magic that might be able to help them with their more dangerous battles. "Also, secrecy and time. The Ministry likely wouldn't approve of some of the magic necessary. And we can't afford to have anyone barge in on us while preparing the circle."

"Lovely," Hestia said sarcastically. "Any idea _why _we ended up here? I certainly don't remember casting any absurdly complicated dimensional spells."

"As far as I can tell? The Veil itself was the thing that brought us here. These things never happen without due purpose." Lilith answered.

"Sooo the Powers-That-Be sent us here? Why?" Daphne asked, raising one eyebrow delicately.

There was a pause, before Lilith shook her head. "I don't know."

"Hm," Susan brushed a stray strand of hair behind her right ear. "That suggests that there's something we're supposed to do before we can go home. Magical balance, they call it. Filling the requirements of the spell. It's possible that we won't be able to return home until we fulfill our task here."

"Well, that's just great," Daphne said sourly. "Any idea what this mysterious 'task' might be?"

Susan nodded. "Not certain, but I have a good idea. There are only two really important things I can think of that would be in need of fixing, and I think we all know what they are."

Nods of agreement. "Lord Moldyshorts." Morag said darkly. "That old fart is still here, isn't he? Four years we've been rid of that guy and now we're faced with him again."

"Yes," Hermione said. "That's one problem."

"The other big problem is the Ministry itself," Ginny pointed out. She didn't speak too loudly, for people were still milling around at the edges of the room where the Order was working, watching them with confusion and fear. "If this Ministry is anywhere near as corrupt as ours used to be, then Riddle is already halfway to power. We all now that if the Ministry had been able to put up a halfway adequate defence, much would have been different."

"Somehow I don't think they'll be interested in listening to us tell them what they have to change," Sally said dubiously.

"Of course, Death Eaters _are _an overlying issue. If they don't infiltrate the Ministry, it will remain idle and we can deal with it at a later date." Pavarti remarked.

Daphne nodded, thinking. "If we live in Britain for any amount of time now, we'll be dealing with them one way or another. This was Riddle's big return debut in our world. It didn't work out for him the same way this time, but I don't think a dozen dead death eaters will slow him down much."

"He'll be mobilizing now. Shall we go out in force?" Lavander finished.

"We don't have our entire ranks with us," Cho said.

"We didn't have most of them when we first fought the Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts in seventh year," Lavander pointed out. "We just had ourselves, our guts, and anyone who would help. We still managed to drive them away. And we aren't inexperienced children anymore who never wanted to fight in the first place anymore. We're fighters. To the last man standing!"

"We've beat them before," Daphne agreed, green eyes hard and flinty. "We could beat them again, should the situation call for it."

"The Death Eaters in our world all but destroyed Britain," Tracey said in agreement with her long time friend. "They unleashed the hordes of monsters, filled the Ministry with corruption, slaughtered so many people. The goblins marched on the world afterwards because they thought we were weak and tired of fighting. It all came back to the Dark Lord."

There was silence as the group considered this.

"Hannah, you'll have to do something about Harry's scar, too," Morag added. Both Hermione and Ginny swallowed hard at the mention of it, Ginny closing her eyes tightly for a moment.

Hannah looked uneasy. "I understand. But I-I didn't manage it last time." It was Hannah's biggest source of grief over the years that she hadn't been able to save Harry when he had been dying on the battlefield.

"It was too late last time," Morag responded seriously, "It isn't for him now, H. It's not too late for the any of the people we knew yet."

"If _you-know-who_ is anything like our world, then it's almost imperative that we step in," Sally-Anne agreed with a tone of slight urgency. To anyone listening, they thought she meant Voldemort. But her friends knew who she spoke of. "Or it'll just end up like our world."

There was a pause as the Huntresses silently imagined this world slowly transforming into the charred wasteland that had been theirs after the Death Eaters finally fell. They glanced back at Sirius, Remus and all the aurors and order members who had died long before the battle of Hogwarts had ever happened. Then they looked at Harry and his friends.

"I don't know about the rest of you girls," Ginny said eventually, "But I really don't fancy just sitting there and watching everyone die. Again."

Pavarti nodded vigorously. She was thinking about her sister, her sweet, loving, wonderful, very much _living_ sister Padma who was currently at Hogwarts taking lessons. Her heart was pounding madly.

"That would suck," Cho responded, gently pulling the now empty glass out of Flora's hands. Her friend scowled darkly at her. "but what about _us_? We're in this world too – Ginny and Hermione have already sort of met themselves. What do we do about them?"

"Move them somewhere safe," Hermione responded, her eyes alight with the fever of strategy that her friends had come to recognize. "There's something that we can do – _if _we can pull it off, they will never have to fight in the first place. I still know where Voldemort's Horcruxes are. I could hunt them down, or send someone to, and have them destroyed. We'd have to deal with him and the snake at the same time, of course, but with our numbers we might be able to hold him down while someone kills the snake."

"I dunno, Mia," Hestia said uncertainly. "Voldemort was one of the most powerful wizards alive. Harry was the one who defeated him last time."

"I'll be damned if I make him do that again!" Hermione and Ginny said these words at the same time, before pausing to glance at each other. "No," Hermione continued more calmly, "while Riddle is certainly the biggest threat, without his web of supporters what he is capable of will be decreased drastically. There's a place where we can start."

"You'd have the backing of the Order, if you were considering that," Sirius remarked. The girls all turned around to see the marauder walking up to him with the looping grace of the dog he could turn into. "Sorry, couldn't help but overhear the last bit of your conversation."

"That would be just like you," Hermione said mildly, smiling at the last Black. She had come to care for Sirius along with Harry through their talks at Grimmauld Place. "Shall we be off?"

"I was about to say so," Sirius said. "This way, ladies." They headed towards the Floo.

"Interdimensional travel is purely theoretical, currently," He said as they reached the fireplace. "I don't know if it's changed where you come from. But there are some books in the library of my family house that you might find useful."

"Thank you," Lilith said.

Sirius looked around the group. "No. Thank _you_. For saving my godson. Merlin knows what would have happened to him and his friends if you hadn't saved them. I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay you for this."

Ginny smiled. "It was our pleasure, Sirius. We just need a place to stay."

Taking some Floo powder, the group called, "Grimmauld Place!", and stepped through the fire.

**With Harry and co**

Harry collapsed in his chair in the common room. He and his friends had been taken back to Hogwarts very late that night, where they were met by an extremely irate Professor McGonagall.

There, Harry had been treated to an earsplitting lecture of "Harry-Potter-how-dare-you-go-and-put-yourself-in-danger-you-could-have-been-killed-and-scared-us-all-half-to-death". Once she had calmed down, she told each of them that she was so happy they were safe. Harry wondered if she had been told about the strangers from another dimension, but before he could ask she shooed them off to their respective common rooms and told them to get some sleep. They were let off classwork for tomorrow to recover from their near-death experiences.

Harry knew that he should probably sleep, but he had too much on his mind. He could only think about the women who had saved them in the Ministry, grown up versions of some of his best friends. The Death Eaters, seemingly indestructible forces of destruction, hadn't managed to even wound one of them, and had lost almost to a man.

Another world...the whole idea was almost overwhelming for Harry. He hadn't met most of the girls in the group, but those he did know were practically unrecognizable. The adult Hermione and Ginny were the ones that stuck with him most.

He remembered seeing the side of older Hermione's head and realizing that she was missing an ear. Older Ginny had multiple cuts on her arms and face, her skin burnt darker by the sun. They looked worn, like a rug that had been trod over for years. Their statement after announcing themselves. Confusing words. Deadly words.

"_It's been a long time since we saw any of you alive._"

Harry sighed and put a hand on his forehead. He could only think about how much his recklessness could have killed his best friends if the Huntresses hadn't been there to save them. He had been so stupid, he'd walked right into Voldemort's trap. Snape was right. He was arrogant, in some ways.

Hermione was scribbling names on a list. Ron, who was sitting tiredly in a chair next to a shaken-looking Ginny, said, "'Mione what are you doing?"

"Writing down names." Hermione said distractedly. "I recognized some of the girls who had saved us, but not others. I was thinking that we should meet their counterparts in the school, if they're really from another dimension."

"That was so weird," Ginny mumbled. "Remember what they said? 'It's been a long time since we saw any of you alive.'" She shivered. "That girl...she really was an older me. It was creepy, honestly."

"Well, she's not quite _you_," Hermione said, "She's her own person, but at the same time she was you as you lived in the world they came from." She paused. "All though I will admit seeing the older me was quite unsettling. I-she takes a lot after mum, from the looks of it."

"What happened to her ear?" Ron wondered. "She seemed to be missing one."

Hermione shuddered. Harry frowned. So he wasn't the only one who had noticed that. "I don't know. But they're fighters, those girls. Maybe she lost it in a battle. I heard that you can't magically replace an limb when it's been cursed off."

"Harry," Hermione pleaded, looking a little green.

"Sorry Hermione," Harry said quickly.

"Do you think they'll help us?" Ginny asked softly. Everyone looked at her. "I mean with You-Know-Who. They fought the death eaters to protect us, but what if they don't want to fight a war in a world that isn't theirs? Should we even be asking them to fight for us in the first place? This isn't their world, after all." She frowned. "What happened in their world, anyway? They look...different then I would have imagined."

There was a long pause as they looked at each other and thought about Ginny's questions. Hermione realized that it was true, there was something different, more worn and tough about these girls then she would have imagined herself growing up to be. A disturbing thought started to form in her head and she pushed it away, frightened.

"Well, I wager it's like that Hannah said – they'll tell us if they feel like it. Now, help me – I heard Sally-Anne Perks, Cho Chang, Su Li...uh, what was the blonde girl's name, the one with really bright blonde hair? Daphne Grass?"

"Greengrass. She's a Slytherin," Neville volunteered shyly.

"Yes. Then there were the sisters, they had dirty blonde hair and mismatched eyes – Hestia and Flora, I think." Ron said.

"Carrow," Hermione murmured, "Carrow...I've heard that name somewhere...I don't think it was associated with nice things though."

Harry frowned. "But they fought the Death Eaters. They were on our side."

"That's what worries me," Hermione responded. "For them, anyway. If they're related to death eaters..." She trailed off, looking disturbed, before continuing, "Well, I don't imagine that Death Eaters make the greatest parents. Something to look into later..."

"I think I've seen the one with reddish brown hair," Neville volunteered. "I have this idea that she's involved with Quidditch when I see her in my head."

"Morag," Ron snapped his fingers. "I just remembered why that sounded familiar. She's a beater. On the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Just joined this year. Wicked on a broom, she is," He winced a bit.

"Then there were Pavarti and Lavander," Hermione murmured. She paused. "But, how's that? You guys know those two. They're girly and gossipy, they don't take much very seriously. I can't imagine them being warriors!"

"But we saw them," Ginny said. "They looked like they'd been through the mill, no mistake, but it was them."

"Then there was Susan and Hannah," Harry added. "I think...they're Hufflepuffs. Right. I remember them from last year, they didn't participate in the 'puffs bullying me for being the fourth champion."

"And lastly there was Tracey Davis," Ginny said. She looked thoughtful. "I've talked to her in the library a few times. She's a Slytherin, but she's actually kind of nice once you get past her exterior. I think it's just a shield she puts up to blend in with the rest of her house."

The group stared down at the list. "Hey," Ron said, "I just noticed – there are people from all four houses here."

The four of them thought about that. House rivalries were very strong, and a good part of the driving force of schoolwork was to one-up the other house. Harry couldn't imagine working with a Slytherin at this point, but at least four of the girls in the group were Slytherins. Maybe things had been different in that world? Maybe Hogwarts didn't have a house system there. Or maybe the expectations of what the houses were like was different.

Harry's head was beginning to hurt. "Well, we can look for these guys tomorrow. Maybe the Order will give us information about those girls later. I think I need to lie down."

"I think you should," Hermione said with a slight frown. "Good night, Harry."

**Grimmauld Place**

The usually silent and stony Grimmauld Place was bursting with energy as sixteen young women moved here and there organizing themselves, clearing out their rooms and generally making the place look more livable. It was very buisnesslike and modelled, the way they went about their work with the Order Members who had gone to make an unnecessary rescue watching curiously.

The person most upset about their appearance was the demented house elf Kreacher, but he only managed to say the word 'mudblood' once before Daphne Greengrass preformed a mysterious hex on him that silenced him. Then she shut him in a cupboard and continued as though nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

Sirius was beaming. "I could kiss you, Greengrass. I hate that elf."

"You don't stand a chance, Black," Daphne said haughtily, tossing her silk blonde hair over one shoulder. Then she added, "We have our own reasons for hating that elf. Besides, anyone who says that word around any of us better be ready to spend the rest of the day with their tongue sticking to the roof of their mouths."

Older Hermione had gone straight to the library with Lilith and Tracey in tow, and in remarkable time they had the not insignificantly sized room clean and halfway presentable. Remus had stood there watching them and was amazed.

"You look like you've been here before," Remus remarked as Tracey and Lilith began to scan the shelves, taking out books that caught their eye. "Was the Order based here in your world too?"

"Not for very long," Older Hermione responded. "It was decided that there was a weakness in the security and they moved to one of Dumbledore's old family houses out in the rural area. More fool then, really – out of all the places we've stayed at this place has always been a haven to us. We took it over later in the war."

"You took it over?" Remus enquired, looking Hermione up and down. "Forgive me if I'm being presumptuous, but you can't be more then twenty four."

Older Hermione gave him an unreadable look before saying, "I'm twenty two, actually. I've been fighting for my life ever since my sixth year."

"Sixth year!" Remus echoed, horrified. "But you would have been sixteen. Why?"

Older Hermione's brow furrowed slightly at this. She put her book down and turned fully to face Remus. "Well, when Voldemort attacked the Ministry in our world, he showed up himself instead of just sending his lackeys. When the other Ministry workers started to file in at the beginning of the day, he attacked them too. Killed a good number before leaving. Turns out there was an ulterior motive for that; it helped his sleeper agents move up in office. Thanks to pre-existing prejudices that pretty much handed important jobs to anyone with pure blood and the Ministry's denial that the Dark Lord was still there and it was like giving candy to a baby. They did a virtually silent takeover halfway through my sixth year at Hogwarts."

"He's planted Death Eaters in the Ministry already?" Remus asked anxiously. This was big news, if it was true.

Now Older Hermione was frowning slightly. "I'm not sure. Something I noticed is that he didn't show up at the Ministry this time. That implies that there's a chance he hasn't moved as fast here as he did in my lifetime, or that he's still playing by ear. Either way, there's a good chance that there's an ambush waiting around the corner."

"There might be some Death Eaters there already..." Remus said with a frown, "It couldn't hurt to check either way...it would give Voldemort a lot of power, to be Minister in all but name..."

Older Hermione nodded, eyes narrowing into slits. "Are there employees at the Ministry named Amycus and Alecto Carrow?"

"Yes," Remus answered. "They're training to be teachers,"

"Remus, if you have one drop of care about what happens to the children of Hogwarts, you wouldn't let those two be within the same city as them."

"Dare I ask why?"

Older Hermione's eyebrows shot up. "You don't know? Alecto regularly tortures and experiments on her daughters Hestia and Flora. She's already a devoted servant of Voldemort, has been for two years. Let her become a teacher at Hogwarts and she'll have students practising the Cruciatus Curse on first years."

"What! Merlin, I have to tell Dumbledore. We have to do something about them. Those poor girls..." Remus blinked when Older Hermione's eyes darkened considerably at the mention of Dumbledore. "Hestia and Flora were downstairs? Same girls, right? That's why their eyes are mismatched, isn't it."

"Yes. Among other things."

"Merlin. Forget Dumbledore, I'll tell Mad-Eye about it as soon as I can."

"That's probably a good idea." Tracey remarked, walking out from the shelves, a huge stack of books floating alongside her.

Remus nodded at the girls and said, "I guess you don't need directions then. Well, I suppose I'll be off..."

He started to head downstairs when Older Hermione called after him, "Remus?"

Remus turned around to see the young wavy haired woman looking down at him with an expression that he had seen on his earth's Hermione before – when she was trying to decide what she should say or whether she should speak at all. But it was also at this moment that he realized how old this Hermione's eyes looked, much older then she was.

It felt odd, listening to the girl who had always called him "Professor Lupin" with the adoration only a dedicated student would give her favourite teacher call him instead by his first name, as a friend and an equal. Truly, this wasn't the same Hermione that he had known these years.

Older Hermione studied his face gravely, as if she was trying to commit it to memory. "I think you should know. In my world, you died a year from now."

Remus's heart skipped a beat and his hands clenched on the bannister to keep himself from stumbling. "Wh-What?"

"Dumbledore sent you to 'convince' the werewolves that had joined Voldemort's cause under the flag of truce to 'come back to the light'. It was a damned fools errand and he should have known it, these packs had already killed several times and left some gruesome corpses in their wake. Fenrir had doubled his pack and he decided to finish what he started when you were a child."

A harsh chill went down Remus's back. A part of his mind rebelled at the idea that Dumbledore would send him on a suicide mission. It was the part that usually he listened to. But another part of his mind insisted that Hermione wouldn't tell wild stories. It wasn't in her character.

"Thank you for the warning," He said softly before continuing downstairs.

Lilith had joined Hermione at the side of the stairwell. Tracey asked, "Think he'll believe you?"

"In time," Hermione said quietly. "Back in this time, I wouldn't have believed it. I learned the hard way that Dumbledore would just let us down. I hope that in this world, this time Remus won't pay for his loyalty with his life."

Hestia, Flora, Cho and Susan were expanding the bedrooms to accommodate all the Huntresses, and setting them up to their individual tastes.

Mad-Eye leaned on his walking stick and watched as Flora set out a good number of knives on her bed. "It's been a long time since any wizard used weapons along with magic." He commented gruffly.

Flora glanced up from her work and looked warily at him for a moment before saying, "I wasn't a fully-trained witch before I had to start fighting. I had to make due with whatever could give me the advantage. Knives can kill as easily as spells."

"They do," Moody agreed. "Godric Gryffindor proved that much."

Flora gave a short nod before returning her attention to her work.

Lavander, Pavarti, Ginny, Susan and Su Li were in the dining room. "Heh, it's been a long time since we've eaten anything that has to be imported," Lavander said gleefully as she organized the food. "I'd forgotten how much I missed this stuff. Megan's going to be jealous as hell when we get back."

Pavarti smiled and nodded, going through the cupboards though pointedly ignoring the one where a demented elf was kicking at the insides. "Once we've reestablished trade routes and that our country is restored, we'll have imported food again, Lavander."

"I know," Lavander retorted. "It's just one of those things we're seeing again in this world. It's kind of funny that way."

"And we'll get to eat Molly Weasley's cooking again," Su Li added, beaming.

Ginny set down the pots she'd been organizing, staring at the countertop. "Oh, I'm sorry Ginny-" Su started, looking a little downcast."

"No," Ginny said, running her fingers through her hair. "It's just...it's my family. They've been dead for years. Gone. I've been alone ever since. I've just started to heal. And now I've seen Ron and Bill...and mum and dad will be joining us. I'm so confused I don't know whether I should laugh or cry, because I miss them but they're here. I don't know what to do about it."

Susan put her arms comfortingly around Ginny's shoulders.

"I understand," Pavarti said quietly. "Ginny, I'd love no more then to run straight to Hogwarts, grab Padma and keep her in the room upstairs. There's so much we didn't get to do and I can't remember what the last thing I said to her was. I've been living every day hoping that it was that I loved her, but I'm not sure. We'll figure something out. I promise."

Lavander swung an arm around Pavarti's waist and said, "They won't be dying, that's for sure. We just have to figure out what we're planning to do with Dumbledork."

Ginny's eyes narrowed. "How about we hex his mouth shut and leave him in a closet until the war is over?"

Susan gave a dry chuckle. "As tempting as that does sound, it probably wouldn't be that good for moral, Ginny. People still think he's the 'Leader of the Light'."

Lavander gave an incoherent snarl at this.

"We can just use him as a figurehead," Su Li ruminated, "and obliviate him whenever we come back from a mission..."

"Not a very long term solution," Susan said, "But also tempting. No, I think we'll figure that out when we come face to face with him again."

"He's not going to interfere this time," Ginny growled.

"I'm not sure if we can stop him," Susan muttered, turning a cup over in her hands. "We may have to deal with him a different way. He's still a powerful wizard, but he's old. I personally think he's going senile but that may not be true of all his brain."

"Maybe a visual aide will help him understand," Pavarti ventured. "After all, our worlds aren't identical. Hell, maybe this Dumbledore will actually help us."

**End Chapter**

**...Well, there was a slim chance he would. Well, one reason for the rating other then the violence to come is there will be, ahem raunchier moments in the fic (though there will not be any explicit sex). This is a bit more set up, things will kick off more later in the story.**

**Read and Review please!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Huntress**

**Wanda: Welcome back to Huntress, everyone! Now, I decided to keep Dumbledore/Order meeting the Huntresses to an interlude because I didn't want to bore anyone restating stuff about canon and the previous chapters. I also want to establish exactly what the girls will be doing here. Tedious, but unfortunately necessary. The next chapter will be a good deal longer and have more to do with the younger Harry and his friends communitacting with the girls native to their universe. I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Interlude 1: Welcome**

Sirius was awake at six in the morning when the Older Pavarti Patil gave a prophecy.

And it scared the hell out of him.

The Older Hermione had neglected to mention that Older Pavarti was a Seer, and Sirius had never taken much stock in the course of Divination when he had taken it in school, though having Sibyl for a teacher probably had something to do with that. But he didn't doubt at all that what he had just heard was the future of the world.

Pavarti had just sat straight up, gazing at the wall of the living room for several seconds as though she was seeing straight through it to the universe beyond, right back into her home world. Her eyes were glazed and distant. She seemed more pensive then usual, though it wasn't an uncommon attitude among the women from this other world.

Sirius hadn't thought much of it, just continuing with his pacing until she spoke.

"_The World is breaking." _

Her voice when she spoke wasn't like the Divination Teacher's at Hogwarts, harsh and grating. Her voice had become terrible and ethereal, like stardust in the distant sky. It sent instant chills up his spine, and he'd spent years in Azkaban. Her dark eyes had become overbright, as though she was seeing something in the distance.

Remus, Kingsley and Bill were the only Order Members who weren't out to either complete a mission or talk with Dumbledore about the events of last night, and they all came running when they heard what they thought was a new voice only to see that it was one of their guests.

They were the only ones confused.

The reaction to Pavarti's change in voice was instantaneous among the other Huntresses.

Almost as though they shared a like mind, they all dropped what they were doing and converged on the room where Pavarti was standing rigid as a post. Hestia and Flora went pale when they heard the words. Older Hermione was watching her friend with a severe expression, while Lavander stood directly behind Pavarti with a look of fierce worry on her face.

"_The World is breaking," _Pavarti repeated, _"It will sink under the weight of the corrupted and the dead. All will cheer in relief at the return of the old master. But then all will be lost in sadness, the land will shine and burn." _

She took a deep breath and paused for a moment before speaking again.

"_But freedom is possible, if the boy-who-lived knows who to lean upon. The bows of the righteous are taught with anger, and the strike of revenge will be swift and sweeping...those who rally live and rejoice, those who hesitate will drown and be lost...lost forever." _

The shining light slowly left Pavarti's eyes. Abruptly the young woman's legs gave out and she crumbled to the floor. Sirius would have caught her but Older Lavander got there first, supporting the other woman's head on her shoulder.

Daphne swore and started muttering something rapidfire under her breath. Morag and Sally Anne Perks looked at each other, alarmed and slightly helpless looking. Tracey slipped her hands into her pockets and watched Lavander and Pavarti grimly. Cho knelt down next to Lavander and murmured something Sirius couldn't make out. Hestia and Flora both started pacing back and forth. Lilith quickly walked over to Susan Bones, who had taken a couple of chess pieces out of her pockets and was looking at them as though they could tell her the answers to this event. Generally, the girls looked as though this had happened before, and they weren't happy about it.

Older Ginny bit into her lip and looked over at her Hermione, who's eyes had closed in something almost like exhaustion.

"Is she alright?" Bill asked, looking down at Pavarti.

"She'll be fine," Cho responded softly. "This always takes a bit out of her. It's been over a year since something of this magnitude happened."

"What just happened?" Remus asked worriedly, looking dumbstruck. He looked as though he might have guessed but wanted the answer to be something other then what he had come up with. "What does that mean?"

"Pavarti is a Seer," Older Ginny explained shortly as Older Lavander gently shook Pavarti's shoulders, rousing the other girl again and earning herself a smile in return.

"A Seer?" Kingsley echoed. "That's a rare gift. The closest I've ever seen to a fully realized Seer is Professor Trawlney, and she's not the most reliable of sorts."

"The younger one of your world is still unawakened, I take it, but Pavarti here has been able to receive prophecies for over four years." Tracey explained.

"Definitely sounds different from Professor Trawley," Sirius said. He wouldn't admit it, but Older Pavarti's prophecy was alarming him the more he thought on the wording.

"Trawley isn't a full Seer like Pav," Lavander growled out. "She only made two complete prophecies that we know of. Pavarti has twelve under her belt by now, but not all of them are as big as this one. Trying to see that far into the future constantly can drive you crazy. In fact, that's probably why Trawley seemed bamy to the rest of us. Drove herself to it looking to hard."

"I didn't know that," Kingsley remarked, sounding a bit troubled. Seers could drive themselves mad? It made a certain amount of sense when you thought about it...but what would that mean for their version of Pavarti Patil? Perhaps he should ask the Elder Pavarti to tutor the younger version of herself should her gift manifest while they were here.

"It was a big one, wasn't it?" Pavarti asked softly, as she tried to sit up. Everyone looked at the young woman as she tried to push herself to her feet, looking a bit bewildered but there was a note of understanding in her eyes that Trawley hadn't shared in the aftermath of two of her only known accurate prophecies.

Pavarti's eyes were dark like the depths of an ocean, speaking of a great knowledge, much like Lilith, Sirius noted. He wondered how much the two girls had learned over the years. Remus had confined in him what Older Hermione had told him, about having to fight for her life ever since she was in her sixth year. With a slight shiver, he was reminded of his and James's own past, growing up in the shadow of Voldemort's first appearance. The idea of something worse happening was almost too much to fathom, and he had a deep sympathy for the girls if they had to live through that.

Lavander gently took her by the waist and let the dark girl lean against her as she stood up. Pavarti looked a bit shaken, but otherwise unharmed.

"Sounds like it," Hestia said unhappily. Flora had managed to materialize another glass of whiskey despite all the Huntresses explicitly warning the members of the Order that they were to keep her away from the drinks. Hestia herself looked like she might want one as well. "I had a feeling this was going to happen. Why does it always have to end up like this?"

"Shut up, Hestia, don't make it any worse," Daphne grumbled, raking a hand through her shining blonde hair. "Okay. Lilith? Lay it on us. What the hell does that mean?"

Lilith shot Daphne a dirty look. "You'll have to give me more time then that Daphne, I might be the ancient magic expert but I'm not Sherlock Holmes. From the sounds of it, it has to do with us, and Harry. Looks like your theory of magic relativity was right, Susan."

Older Susan nodded seriously, and said, "Well, at least now we're certain of that. The thing we still don't know is exactly what to do next."

"We have to tell the rest of the Order about this," Remus said heavily. "Prophecies are not to be trifled with; we learned that during the last war."

Sally nodded at this and opened her mouth to say something, but there was a commotion at the front door that cut her off. There were sounds like knocking on the front door and people talking to each other just outside.

Then the door swung open, and Molly Weasley's voice came from down the hallway. "Sirius, Albus is here, he wants to talk to you about what happened in the Ministry. Mad-Eye seems to think there are girls from another dimension here!"

The look on Older Ginny's face morphed into something between shock, joy and terror.

Without a word, she bolted into a back room.

After a split second, Hermione, who had been standing like a deer caught in headlights, went after her. The rest of the Huntresses exchanged a quick look and followed suit.

_Later_

Molly and Arthur were sitting in shock in a pair of chairs, stunned to the point where they were just staring dumbly at Sirius and Remus. Fred and George were hanging at the doorways with their mouths hanging open in equally stunned expressions. Nymphadora Tonk's eyes had migrated past her bangs and her expressive hair had turned white with shock. Mad Eye seemed quietly amused by this, as if he had warned them about it earlier and they hadn't believed it.

Albus Dumbledore, leader of the Order of the Phoenix and veteran of two wizarding wards, could safely say this was the most he had been surprised in a long time.

"Young warriors from another dimension," He murmured, taking a drink of butterbear as he considered this. His old eyes seemed to be gazing beyond the wall, something Sirius had experienced many times when he had been in the Headmaster's office for misbehaving back when he had been a student himself. "Fascinating."

"I didn't think that kind of magic could be used by anyone," Kingsley admitted, "But we did an extensive check, and they answered every question without fail. They are the girls we wrote about in the letter. It's a certainty."

"They defeated the Death Eaters without suffering a single casualty." Mad Eye added gruffly. "Nearly forty to fifteen, and they won without a single casualty. You haven't seen anything like that since the war on Grindlewald."

Arthur's jaw dropped. "But...that's practically unheard of!" He exclaimed. "The last people who did things like that were you Dumbledore, and Minerva and Flitwick back during the first war against Voldemort!"

"True," Dumbledore said evenly, "You flatter me Arthur. This tells us that they are very powerful...or at least tactically minded." He looked questioningly at Sirius.

"The Older Hermione greeted us as the 'Huntresses of Magical Britain'," Sirius responded. "Sounds like an established organization from where ever they come from. Wouldn't surprise me if it was a new branch of the Auror corpse."

"Albus," Minerva said worriedly, "what are we going to tell the press? The public seems to think that we were saved by angels that night. Should these things become public knowledge?"

"I doubt it, Minerva," Albus said, "Perhaps when the next Minister is sworn in we could swear him into secrecy over the matter, but until then we'd best keep this knowledge to ourselves." He paused, and then looked thoughtfully at the Order Members who had gone to the Department that night.

"I admit I'm most interested in these young women...without their aide, I fear a grave mistake I made with Harry would have resulted in tragedy for all involved."

Sirius snorted. "I doubt there would have been much tragedy for Voldemort and his cronies," He said darkly. "Just for Harry and his friends. I told you that you should have been straight with him from the start, that he wasn't going to just sit there and wait!"

"And you were right," Dumbledore said heavily, choosing not to argue the point with the threatened boy's godfather, "And we nearly paid a hefty price for it. I swear to you Sirius, I won't let something like that happen again. Now, on the subject of these girls, I do wish to converse with them about their own dimension. In your letter, you said that one of the first things this Older Hermione said to you was that it had been a long time since they had seen any of you alive. I don't like the sound of that."

"Believe me, I didn't particularly care for it either," Remus said evenly. "Older Hermione told me straight out just yesterday that I had died in her world a year from now. Killed by werewolves during a convention where I was supposed to convince them to abandon Voldemort's cause."

Tonks made a strangled noise at this particular declaration, and looked anxiously at Remus. The werewolf gave her a comforting look before returning his attention to the Headmaster.

Dumbledore looked very grave at this comment. Inwardly, he thought to himself that he had been considering sending Remus to do just that on and off recently, though he was distracted by Harry's current predicament. But this news was damning, and perhaps he should consider it before he risked a good asset of the Order of the Phoenix on a fool's errand.

"That would be dire news indeed, if it were true Remus," He said benevolently, pressing his fingers together in thought. His eyes twinkled behind his glasses. "Perhaps it would be best if I spoke to these fine young women directly. They are still here, I presume?"

"Yes. Upstairs." Sirius said. He glanced apologetically at Molly. "I think you gave the Older Ginny a bad shock coming in unannounced."

"M-M-My baby girl, from another world...? A warrior? Having to fight against those horrible Death Eaters? In the line of fire? How is that even...I don't..." Molly stammered. "I-I-I don't understand. I, how is this possible?"

"We're not sure," Remus supplied. "The Huntresses, as they call themselves, don't seem to understand it either. Some sort of accident, probably."

"There's another thing," Kingsley added, "Pavarti Patil is apparently an unrealized Seer. The older one, however, is not. And she gave a prophecy not long before you came here, Molly."

Fred and George made small noises of disbelief. Dumbledore leaned forward and looked at Kingsley seriously. "A fully realized Seer? Are you certain?"

"Yes. She had all the characteristics of it." Kinglsey said honestly. Remus and Sirius both gave their agreement to this.

Then, Kingsley repeated the given prophecy to Dumbledore himself, who sat back in his seat and contemplated it while the Order of the Phoenix exploded into chatter around him. Minerva certainly wasn't sure what to think of the whole situation, but he had a few thoughts going around his head regarding this.

A fully realized Seer...the implications of the prophecy she had given were too strong to ignore. Death and drowning, all mentioned within it, and if things did not go a certain way, there would be very much of it. Dumbledore took a deep breath. There would be time for him to unwind this new factor in the game of politics and warfare, but right now it made it all the more imperative that he spoke to these strange young women. Perhaps he could convince them to join his warfare.

More warriors would be welcomed in the Order, which despite all the good they had done so far were very much limited by their number of warriors, admittedly few. They would not stand very well in a pitched war, and Dumbledore had been aware of this the moment he had the first meeting and saw the numbers. It grieved him to see so few people willing to stand up against Voldemort's tyranny, even in secret, but he understood what fear and prejudice could do to people. Given time, they would turn around, possibly even join him in numbers as they managed to drive the Dark Lord back. Harry himself had proven that among his own classmates to a certain degree.

"Please, Sirius, do ask these young women to come down and speak to me," Dumbledore said. Sirius nodded and left the room. He gestured to the rest of the Order, who all ceased their chattering and looked attentively at him. "Now we might want to get some seats. Minerva, perhaps you could even provide us with a dish of lemon drops."

Slowly, uneasily, the assembled Order of the Phoenix all sat down on various chairs, and began to wait. Sirius disappeared upstairs. Molly took a sip of tea to settle her nerves, while Fred and George made no attempts to hide the fact they were staring at the staircase.

Tonks made a point of sitting down next to Remus and putting a hand on his arms. Remus gave a half-hearted attempt to shrug her off, but then relaxed. Tonks smiled.

After a few long moments, there was a series of thumping, and slowly Sirius appeared in the room, and he was followed by a string of young women. Familiar young women.

Arthur, Molly, Fred and George gasped slightly as Older Ginny walked into the room, staring back at them, brown eyes wide.

After a moment, the beginnings of tears pricked at the edges of them, and she turned her face away, pretending to tuck stray strands of hair away from her face.

Molly's heart broke at the sight, while she stared at this battered shadow of her precious seventh child as though she were looking at her own ghost. Arthur had gone quite pale as he took her in, as well as the brown haired woman standing at the front who was, despite all the changes to her appearance and the shadows in her eyes she was unmistakeably Hermione Granger, one of his sons best friends. Fred and George were both deadly silent, staring at her in near incomprehension.

Albus watched each girl come in with a serene calm, waiting for all the girls to get seated. When everything was in order, he spoke to them. "Welcome, young ladies."

"Thank you Headmaster," Older Hermione said neutrally. Sirius couldn't help but notice that some of the girls were looking at Dumbledore with expressions that were either wary or spoke of extreme, restrained distaste. He filed this away in his head for future consideration.

Albus smiled. "You know who I am? So you did go to Hogwarts in your world."

"Yes," Older Su Li responded, tugging at the edge of her sleeve absently. "Hogwarts is still considered one of the better magical schools, even in another world." At this, Flora Carrow snorted.

"Su Li, correct?" Dumbledore guessed. Older Su Li nodded. "Forgive me if I seem presumptuous, but as a teacher it always warms me to see my students grown up."

He looked between each and every one of the girls, taking in their scars, and said more soberly, "I wish it could have been under better circumstances."

"We all with that Headmaster," Tracey said quietly.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair again. "Perhaps you could tell us about the world you came from. After all, it's not every day that something like this happens."

Susan's brows furrowed. "It's not good, professor," She said frankly.

Minerva McGonagall pursed her lips. "We've lived a long time, Miss Bones," She said, "I'm sure that whatever happened, we'll be able to handle it."

Hermione smiled, ever so slightly, when McGonagall said this, before her eyes darkened. With that, she began to speak, slowly, but calmly, with a wealth of old sorrow in her eyes. She took them through dark years at Hogwarts, Ginny, Susan or Morag jumping in whenever she had to stop. The Order listened, first curious, then shocked, then horrified as the parade of horrors continued onwards as the girls spoke.

Ginny's fingers whitened as they locked together, eyes haunted, "When Riddle took over the Ministry," she began, voice like cracked ice, "He told his men to identify each of the families that had stood up to him last time, and to exterminate them. Bellatrix was sent out with some of the worst of his forces to the Burrow. I escaped, because I was out helping Harry. But n-no – one else made it. Riddle was ruthless."

Molly gasped. Older Ginny nodded emotionlessly before continuing, "He wanted to kill off all of Harry's support. Or draw him out. He didn't particularly care how many people he would have to kill to make that happen. In the end, he decided that wasn't enough, and attacked Hogwarts itself when he heard that Harry was returning there."

"He told our _dear _mother that we were just liabilities now, and to kill us when we came home from sixth year," Hestia chimed in. Flora made a growling noise in her throat. "But we never went home. Hermione saved us and gave us shelter."

"I managed to protect my parents," Hermione murmured. Her eyes flashed with grief, but she went on before anyone could question it. "My aunt and uncle weren't so lucky. Morag's father was one of those killed, as well as Hannah's mother. Neville's parents were killed in their beds at St. Mugo's, despite the fact they no longer posed any threat. The list goes on."

There was a silence after this. The girls were all looking expectantly at the Order. Sirius had gone very pale. He'd suspected when he'd first met these women that the battle in their world had gone very badly, but he hadn't guessed that it would be that bad, or that he himself would have died long before, leaving Harry to defend for himself.

"Harry never lived to see peace in our world," Hannah said quietly.

This truly brought silence, with many people staring at her in horror. "The battle between him and Voldemort only ended when they did each other in. Voldemort died by Harry's hand, but he had left magic in Harry the day he killed his parents that took him away so the monster could be gone forever. I...I couldn't save him that day, because I hadn't prepared the only magic that could have done such a thing."

"I had wondered," Albus said, and to Older Hermione's satisfaction the old man sounded slightly shaken. "if it might have been the case. I hadn't know there was magic that counteracted things that dark."

"I got it from the notes left behind by your personal double agent Snape," Hannah responded. Albus's eyebrows went up at this information. "But I didn't have enough time."

Older Hermione leaned forward in her chair and said, "Listen closely, Professor. We were brought here by what is likely the will of magic itself. There has been so much destruction in our world because of the way the war was handled. And now we're here, and trust me when I say we are not going to sit back, and watch our loved ones die before our eyes for a second time, because people think the war shall be played out a certain way. We will be involved, in every way that we can, and we will fight the battles we deem necessary to end Voldemort's threat and minimize the damage he caused, so this world will not end up like ours. I'm afraid we've made up our minds about this particular decision."

Albus thought about this. He wasn't pleased, when he had been told that these women had killed all the Death Eaters that had appeared within the Ministry that night. He lived under the philosophy that they should not engage in warfare the same way their opponents did, or they would only take steps to becoming the next dark wizards themselves. He wasn't sure if these Huntresses shared that opinion, though from their stories he ad a suspicion that they might be more...liberal in the way they handled the Death Eater threat.

However, he knew full well that Voldemort had returned and the Order was at a disadvantage. There was chaos and fear everywhere, and the Ministry was completely disorganized after Fudge had been pretending Voldemort hadn't returned for over a year. And this Hermione did speak the truth regarding what was inside Harry's head.

Dumbledore had been trying to assuage his conscience for many years, believing that the only way Harry could be rid of the horcrux - and the world rid of Voldemort – was that Harry himself had to die. But then these women appeared, offering him a potential alternative...could he really turn that down? Surely he could convince them to take a gentler handling of the prisoners while they were working together. It was promising.

"Open war is not yet upon us," He said. When Lavander and Flora started so say something angrily, he raised a hand, "Please, hear me out. I agree that we must begin to prepare, because Voldemort will not stay silent for long. I have a proposal, that I wish for you to take into consideration."

The Huntresses paused and looked critically at him. "What is it?" Lilith asked after a long moment.

Dumbledore smiled gratefully. "As you likely know, there are a few vacant posts within Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'm still looking for a talented witch and wizard who might fill that particular post for one year. And it seems that unfortunately, Professor Binns has left the casle, leaving the History of Magic teaching post open. Would be a pity if someone stepped in who wouldn't talk about the many good things that halfbloods and muggleborns have achieved along with their pureblood counterparts."

His smile grew slightly as the group's eyes widened in surprise and understanding. "Also, in the light of Voldemort's return I feel it would be best to reactivate the Duelling Course that has been unused for years, and have it be compulsory. I thought perhaps one of you lovely young ladies care to fill in that post."

"For that matter," He continued, eyes twinkling a bit as the girls looked at each other, "Thanks to the rather unfortunate matter of fact that Fudge was determined not to admit that Voldemort returned, the Ministry is a bit wonky. The Aurors are understaffed and under trained, and I do believe that Amelia Bones would appreciate some assistance in gearing up the place for what we'll end up facing. With the shortage I imagine they'd be willing to hire anyone who shows promise, especially if Rufus becomes Minister. The votes are certainly in his favour so far."

"I..." Hermione looked genuinely surprised. After a moment she recomposed herself and said, "May we have a moment to discuss this?"

Albus nodded with a grandfatherly smile. "Please, do take the time you need."

Hermione stood up, and the Huntresses followed her into the back room.

**With the Huntresses**

"I wasn't expecting that," Herimone gasped when she was sure they wouldn't be overheard. Susan nodded in fervent agreement.

"It sounds...actually rather promising, don't you think?" Daphne said, having mulled over it for a few moments. "Us, teaching at Hogwarts, or working within the Ministry. If we'd been better prepared back in our time, there would have been fewer casualties, right? And either way it puts us right where we need to be, within the snakes nest where we can chip away at the corruption."

Cho looked a bit dubious. "I'm not sure...wouldn't it be better for us to be ready to march on the Death Eaters when they come parading down the streets?"

"That's the thing Cho, it hasn't gotten to that point yet," Pavarti murmured, "In fact, if we manage to change things a bit they might not be able to do the marching at all. Think about it. If one or two of us infiltrate the Ministry we can identify and kill off Voldemort's sleeper agents."

"And if we're in the school, not only can we keep an eye on our younger counterparts but we'll be able to preside over Voldemort's junior death eaters," Ginny added, sounding almost excited. "We could be able to do some disparaging of pureblood supremacy within the school itself! We can take it back from the bigots who have ruled it since."

"Riddle has a good following inside Howarts, or at least he did in our world," Sally agreed. "If we can subvert them he might not even be able to get inside the castle this time."

"But who would teach?" Flora demanded. "You're not seriously expecting me to deal with forty brats a class four classes a day seven days a week!"

Morag rolled her eyes with a certain amount of fondness. Out of all the Huntresses, she was probably the closest to Flora aside from Hestia. "You're right, Flora. That _would _be a bad idea."

After a colletive laugh, which Flora sulked through, Morag turned to her right and said, "No, I think you should teach Ginny."

"Me?" Ginny squeaked.

"For Duelling," Morag responded easily. "You're a wicked fighter Gin, you know that. And you'd be just perfect for dealing with those kids – you could just glare, and they'd scatter. I probably won't have the safe effect."

Cho laughed, putting a delicate hand over her mouth as she did so. "She's got a point, Ginny," She said as the redhead sputtered indigently at this.

Ginny gave Morag one of said scowls, before straightening up a bit. "Perhaps...maybe...I could do that, I suppose...of course, I can't very well apply at Ginny Weasley...well, the Weasleys are a big family. I'll go by Gwendolyn."

"You make a good point," Hermione admitted. Her eyes flicked among the group. "Hestia, how about you teach Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

Hestia's eyes widened in surprise. "You think? I don't know, Hermione..."

"Think of it as therapeutic. And protecting other children from what happened to you," Hermione suggested gently. "None of us know dark magic the way you and Flora do, and I don't feel good about leaving Flora around some students who might provoke her."

It was a testament to Flora's personality that she didn't even try to argue with that statement. Hestia's brows furrowed thoughtfully for a long moment before she said, "Alright. I'll try it. I'll ask the Order to make me an alias."

"That's good," Tracey said encouragingly.

"Hermione, you take History of Magic." Susan said. "You could probably sneak some muggle history in with it, if I know you at all."

"You do," Hermione said with a slight smile. "Stryder was my mother's maiden name. I'll go under that while I'm teaching."

She paused as if in thought.

"As for who will go to the Ministry..." Her eyes swept the Huntresses, "Morag, Tracey, Flora, Su Li. You'll take up any posts that Dumbledore might offer you. Tracey, Lavander, Pavarti, Lilith, Sally, you're here on standby in case of emergencies. We don't know what Voldemort's patters are in this world yet, it's your job to pick up on them. We'll stay in contact the whole time and share news, keep us updated. Everyone got that?"

"Yes," The collective answered, looking something like excited. It was safe to say that feelings like that hadn't been shared by that group for a good long while.

**End Chapter**

**Yes, there will be things going on at all of these fronts. I promise, there will be politics, violence and decking Malfoy all up and coming. Also, I've been asked about the relationship between Harry/older Hermione/older Ginny, to which I say...keep reading. There's more to it, and this universe's Harry will come to a decision when he hears about it (eventually)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Huntress**

**Wanda: Welcome back everyone, and thanks for sticking around. Sorry for the wait, but I had a stress-related breakdown over the course of February and it held up most of my work. I promise I'll update Finding next, now that I've recovered. School isn't a walk in the park these days and I have a project coming up, so my updates might be a bit sporadic. I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 4: New Teachers**

**With Harry**

Harry leaned back against the head of the bed in his small room at the Dursleys, charms textbook sitting against his chest. He had tried to study, but all summer his mind kept going back to the girls from the future. It was pointless to try and focus on anything else; it was similar to the waves of blackness that had followed him everywhere following his incarceration in this place after Cedric's death, but this time there was a glimmer of hope that these people offered.

It certainly helped that all Hermione, Ron, Luna and Ginny would talk about in their letters was the Huntresses. Ginny had managed to get in contact with Susan Bones and by extension Hannah Abbot, though she hadn't told them about their Huntress counterparts yet. She said that they would meet up on the train.

Harry hoped that the two girls would believe them, as he tapped his fingertips against his charms textbook. After an entire year of being called crazy, delusional, being turned away by everyone he _should _have been able to trust even when he was in real danger (there would always be a pricking sensation where Umbridge had slashed his hand open time and again whenever he thought about lying) that he almost forgot that Susan had been a member of the DA. With any luck, she would believe them. Maybe she'd even get to meet her future counterpart.

Susan and Hannah had been nice enough to him over the years, especially in comparison to some of the other students at Hogwarts, but they hadn't interacted much, and he hadn't been acting particularly rational at the end of the fifth year. Harry hoped that they would like him. Trust him.

Harry couldn't deny it – there were questions he wanted to ask. Specifically, he wanted to talk to the future Hermione, and future Ginny. The desire to speak with them alone, to ask them about the future they fled from was like a constant ache in the pit of his stomach, but whenever he tried to pen a letter, none of the words that bounced around his mind without rest when he tried to sleep would reach his hand, and he would give up. Sirius wrote to him from time to time, along with Lupin, but they didn't say much about the Huntresses, only that they were being busy over the summer months. The jobs they were doing weren't specified, just in case the letters were intercepted.

Perhaps it was a selfish feeling; he wanted to know what happened to him in that future; if he had succeeded in breaking this life long curse and defeated Voldemort. But even more then that, he wanted to know what became of his friends. He wanted to know why they were all scarred as they were.

Ron said that the women would be staying at the Order of the Phoenix headquarters with Sirius, and apparently their parents had met up the future Ginny. There had been some sort of agreement between them and Dumbledore, but his parents wouldn't go into the details with him. Again. They just told him not to talk about the Huntresses with anyone else.

_I can't help but feel a bit insulted at that, _Ron had written at the end of the letter. Harry gave a soft chuckle, he could see his best friend going red at the ears at this point. _I don't have loose lips, and besides, who would believe us other then their counterparts here?_

Luna had agreed with that. Ginny had convinced her to start sending letters along with her, and Harry was finding that he enjoyed Luna's perceptions of the world, in ways they reminded him of his own before he he had managed to make friends. Her letters always held her strange personality inside them, but Harry new she could be quite insightful, and this was no exception. Her letters to him were oddly comforting as he soldiered through yet another summer at the Dursleys.

He wondered why he hadn't seen her in the school earlier; Ginny had been friends with her for years. Harry resolved to meet the other girls who had been a part of the Huntresses, and be as friendly as he could.

Just thinking about that house made Harry miss Sirius terribly, and all the more grateful that no one had gotten hurt by his ill-fated trip into the Department of Mysteries that night. Though this time he had other things to occupy his mind to keep the frustration and anger from boiling up inside his chest and making him do foolish things; his trip to the Ministry had shown him that much. _I'd be dead if it wasn't for them, _Harry thought. _I wish I could have thanked them for it, but I don't know if I can send them letters. I wish I could have talked to them. Maybe they'd tell me more about how to be a better wizard, or a bit about the world they come from._

Harry wondered how Molly Weasley had taken this adult shadow of her only daughter; she loved her children very much and Harry doubted she enjoyed seeing any version of her daughter looking so war torn. There had also been future Ginny's reaction to seeing Ron again, like she was looking at something she'd figured she'd never seen again.

Hermione talked at length about theory and about the Huntresses through their normal summer correspondence. She was hung up on the appearance of her own future self; Harry had gotten letters where that was all she went on about for entire pages and it was the same when they talked on the telephone. Hermione was usually the first to take initiative with these sorts of things, but was too nervous to send her future self letters.

Hermione was probably closer to any explanation then either of the boys were, so Harry had asked her about it. About future Ginny.

When Harry had pressed her for an answer, her next letter had been very short in comparison, but it said something that chilled Harry to his bones; that it meant that future Ginny's Ron was dead.

That thought frightened Harry a good deal, because lying awake that night, he knew now more then ever that it was possible in the end. Harry thought about his destiny to defeat Lord Voldemort and knew he would have start preparing more strenuously if he was planning on claiming victory in that particular battle. He'd thought he was ready, but that had shown him how woefully under prepared he was, and the madman responsible hadn't even deigned to show himself.

He wondered if Dumbledore was going to set up special training for him once he got back to Hogwarts. Maybe he could convince the man to let his best friends in on it too, just so he could know that they would have a better chance when the axe fell.

Harry remembered the battle between the Huntresses and the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries, and bit his lip. He really hoped Dumbledore would allow it.

That battle had been unlike anything Harry had experienced before, and completely unlike his encounters with Draco Malfoy at any year prior to this. The closest thing he had experienced was an extremely kiddified version in 'Harry Hunting', which Dudley had given up after his encounter with the Dementor last year.

The violence of the battle, the deaths, necks snapping, the blood on the wall...these things haunted him, followed him even when Vernon and Petunia did their best to draw his attention to whatever menial task they wanted him to do that day. Harry had, not counting Quirrel's death, never seen or caused the end of a life.

Seeing that kind of death, much of it, was a shock to the system.

Seeing the girls preform this task so easily made his stomach twist, even when he knew they were doing the right thing, and saving his life. Perhaps it was simply an instinct, because no altruistic person truly wished death on another, regardless of what they had done. Harry hoped he'd be able to control his stomach for the next time he was attacked.

So Voldemort was going to make his move soon. Harry thought about that, and felt his stomach sink. If only he had been more careful back in fourth year...maybe he could have stopped this whole thing from happening. If only...Harry sighed and let his head roll back, knocking it against the faded wall of the second bedroom.

The Huntresses were almost always on the forefront of his mind, and it was no mystery to him why. Seeing people he knew that well so...different was both confusing and frightening. He still wasn't sure what to think of it or how to feel. Perhaps he should be afraid.

He remembered the scarred versions of Hermione and Ginny often, and sometimes he would dream about what could have given his best friends those injuries.

They were nightmares, and he would wake up with a start, dripping with sweat, the girl's terrified screams echoing in his ears as they were cornered by death eaters. It wouldn't have taken much to make it fact a few months ago when they had followed him into the Ministry...Harry knew he was lucky they hadn't held that against him. The idea that they could have died hadn't even occurred to him back then, it hadn't seemed real.

It did now.

They weren't much of a reprieve from the nightmares about Cedric, in some ways it was worse although it hadn't happened yet.

There was fear in his chest because he knew that if Death Eaters and Voldemort really did come back, it wouldn't take much to make those dreams reality.

His mind was spinning with so many questions he had no way of answering, questions he wasn't sure he'd even be able to answer. He recognized the frustrating feeling from back during his fifth year, and shook his head firmly, wishing that he could send these feelings away. _You almost got your friends killed last year, _he told himself angrily, _is that not enough for you? _

Sighing, Harry closed his charms textbook with a sharp snap. He wondered how he was ever supposed to even think about schoolwork with total war on the horizon. A war that he had always been at the crux of, because of some bloody prophecy. (Sirius had told him about that over the summer against Dumbledore's wishes. In retrospect, Harry figured that it was the only thing that made sense to him anymore) A war that wouldn't end until he could face Voldemort.

_I'm not a child anymore_, Harry thought, putting his books away one at a time, focusing on their weight and the feeling of the spine in his hands to keep his emotions in check.

_Then again, I never really was one. A boot cupboard? Watching someone burn alive at eleven because of your touch? Childhood had never existed to me. It died along with my parents that night at Godric's Hollow. I am a warrior with a mission, whether I or Dumbledore liked it or not._

He'd entertained the illusion that he could pretend to be a normal boy with school for five years. And what had come out of it, really? Cedric had died, and Harry was no closer to being prepared for Voldemort then he was any battle, really. The Death Eaters were adults, many who had been sentenced before. Hardened killers. Fanatics. As devoted to their master as dogs, with the mentality of dogs infected with rabies.

Harry could have laughed at himself. And how had he been planning on defeating these people? With levitation and disarming charms? He really had been an idiot. No wonder he had fallen for the trap in the Department of Mysteries.

He couldn't keep playing with the kid gloves on, even if it meant taking on armour that was technically too big for him. He couldn't afford that any more. No one could.

Harry knew that Dumbledore wouldn't let him leave Hogwarts. That didn't mean he should go to the classes that wouldn't help him defeat Riddle. He had to focus on what he needed to do now...Harry glanced at the table. He had to learn some more powerful spells, things with more of a punch to them. Huntress Flora had thrown knives around as well; maybe he should try and learn to do the same.

Maybe he should write older Hermione a letter. If anyone could show him how to fight, it would be her, or another Huntress. It couldn't hurt to ask.

"Boy!"

Harry blinked, drawn out of his thoughts by Vernon's voice and a pounding on his door. "Boy, get up. There are some girls at the door here to take you to that freak school."

A shriek of anger and indignation drifted up from the stairwell. "Girl?! Do I look like a girl scout to you? Why I ought to-" The voice was young, strong and female, but too rough to belong to Tonks – the youngest girl in the Order.

Harry's heart pounded in his chest. That was the voice of future Lavander. Had Dumbledore sent them to make sure he got to school safely? Had they come here themselves? Quickly he finished organizing his trunk, grabbed Hedwig's cage and hurried out the door.

Vernon was standing by his door, looking the same compilation of anger and confusion and mild sickness that he usually got whenever he had to deal with wizards, which turned his face an amusing shade of purple. He jerked an unsteady thumb downstairs, as though the mere existence of all these things were all his nephew's fault.

Harry hurried past him, having adjusted to this attitude a long time ago, his trunk rattling on the stairs as he headed for the door.

Dudley and Petunia were hanging back at the entrance, staring uneasily at the door. Petunia, naturally, looked like she might faint if things got a bit more interesting; Harry wondered about how she had acted earlier in the summer, and why she had agreed to keep him in her house. No, there were no changes to her aunt and uncle though Dudley looked almost fascinated as he examined the new arrivals.

Something had changed inside his cousin since the Dementor attack, though Harry had been too wrapped up in his own problems to really notice it. Dudley saw Harry coming and looked sharply down at the floor; he'd been acting like that around him ever since last summer.

Sure enough, Harry stopped at the edge of the hall and found future Tracey, future Susan and future Lavander all waiting for him. Their non-wand weapons were strapped to their hips and they were all dressed in what looked like black leather.

"Hello Harry." future Tracey said lightly, as though they were old friends. Her red hair was pulled back into a bun, and Harry realized that her leather coat was a variation of the Auror uniform. Future Susan was dressed similarly, while Lavender's outfit had a more casual look (in the 'cross me and I'll smash you into paste' kind of punk casual).

"Hello," Harry repeated softly. Once again, he imagined asking one of the questions he had been thinking about for some time, but they got lost on the way to his throat.

"Sorry about this, but security demands that you have an escort to school." future Susan said briskly, though her voice was surprisingly friendly.

"Escort?" Vernon blustered, looking around from one woman to the next, "Why the ruddy heck does the boy need an escort? What's going on out there?"

"Oh, just an escaped dark lord and his minions," Lavender responded matter-of-factly, "who likes to torture muggles, muggleborns and half bloods for not having 'pure wizarding blood'. Just making sure that Harry doesn't get murdered on the way to school."

Vernon paled immediately, along with Dudley and Petunia.

Lavender paused, almost causally, before continuing in a breezy tone, "For one thing, it would be incredibly messy, and he'd probably go after you next for housing him. I recommend you stay inside for the next few months, you know, just as a precaution to prevent your horrible deaths."

The scarred blonde girl smirked as all three Dursleys turned white as bedsheets, and Vernon made a noise similar to when he had met Hagrid for the first time. Susan rolled her eyes, but she didn't rebuke her friend. In fact, she and Tracey both looked slightly amused, though they were hiding it.

Harry felt himself grinning; they clearly didn't like his guardians any more then he did. After years of the only adults looking out for him being Sirius and the Weasleys, a warm feeling welled up inside his chest as he stepped out and joined the three women.

Perhaps he should feel bad that future Lavander was deliberately freaking them out, but after fifteen years of putting up with their abusive ways he wasn't about to cut in. Besides, the blood wards would keep them safe.

"Just in case," future Tracey echoed sagely. "Let's be off, Harry."

Petunia looked frightened about this, almost enough to request her own security detail, before considering what that meant and didn't say anything. She might have wanted to say something about a bunch of witches barging into her house, but she wouldn't look straight at Lavender's face, the scars on them obviously disagreeing with what she expected of people.

Harry felt a jolt of surprising anger at this. Lavender had fought in battles to protect innocent people. Those scars were a mark of honor, not something to be ashamed of or mocked. He'd always known his aunt to be superficial, but that was pushing it.

Future Lavander threw her a contemptuous look and scoffed. Their Harry must have told them what his guardians were like, to get this kind of response.

Harry managed to smile back and said, "Hello. I-I was expecting something like this, but I hadn't thought it'd be you," He admitted.

"Disappointed?" Future Susan asked mildly, but her words lacked bite. She looked down at him with a slightly raised eyebrow; she looked the most outwardly normal Huntress of the group but there was something in her eye that told him there was much more going on under that.

"No," Harry responded hastily, missing the smiles Lavender and Tracey shot each other over his head when he said this, "This is actually quite nice."

"Let's make tracks, kiddo," Lavander said, putting a heavy hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry jumped a bit but nodded, feeling secure and an odd trace of familiarity.

_Was it like this for their Harry? _He wondered. Harry hadn't had a large number of friends prior to this; the idea was a nice one, but it hadn't really worked out that way for him. They walked to the edge of the block before future Susan put a chain in his hand.

"Say Platform 9 and 3/4, and it'll move you there," She explained. "Invention of mine from back during our second war. Kept students from getting kidnapped on the way to school."

"You've made things?" Harry asked curiously.

"Yeah. You saw the hammer and the knives that Morag and Flora used? We learned to use magic along with some things that were invented for muggles." future Tracey responded, tapping her fingers against her side. Her dark blue eyes gleamed knowingly. "The Sword of Gryffindor isn't the only enchanted blade in existence now."

"Let's go," future Susan intervened mildly. "In our world, the Death Eaters didn't find out about Privet Drive until much later, but let's not take any chances, shall we?"

Harry's eyes widened, and he nodded, clutching the chain and saying, "Platform 9 and 3/4."

There was a violent tug at his naval as the world dissolved around him. Harry had never been very good with portkeys, so when they landed he almost fell flat on his face, only caught by future Susan's arms. Stumbling, Harry managed to right himself.

"Portkeys never agreed with me," He mumbled half in explanation and the other in justification.

To his surprise, all three women chuckled instead of looking disapproving as he had expected, in the way of people who hadn't had much to laugh about in a long time. Wryly he realized that in their world he must have been just as bad with portkeys as he was here. That thought was oddly comforting.

The bustling at the Platform he had visited ever since he was eleven years old seemed subdued and uneasy, and there were Aurors standing at all the entrance points. Some people were being pulled aside and searched, while the students heading onto the train climbed straight on without sharing any gossip or lingering after saying good bye to their parents. Harry saw Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville nudging their way through the crowds towards him, flanked by future Lilith, future Sally Anne, and future Daphne.

A hand landed on Harry's shoulders, bringing him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see future Susan looking seriously at him. "A word to be wise, Harry." She said quietly, so her voice didn't carry. "Keep an eye on Draco Malfoy."

Harry turned and gave her his full attention. "Draco? Why?"

Future Susan's eyes narrowed. "In our world, right around this year, Draco graduated from just hexing and slandering muggleborns to several counts of assault and attempted murder. He was tasked with opening a pathway through the wards of Hogwarts so the Death Eaters could come in, kill and cause mass havoc. Several students died, including a young Gryffindor named Natalie MacDonald. She was just a third year."

Harry's stomach seized and he knew the blood was draining out of his face. "Did you tell Dumbledore?"

Future Lavender snorted, while future Tracey's eyes narrowed. Future Susan explained calmly, "He didn't think a sixth year was capable of murdering younger children. Dumbledore may be the leader of the light but he's too idealistic for his own good Harry. Don't listen, just watch Draco. Some of us already have an eye on him but we can't exactly follow him the way you can."

Harry wondered why Susan would say that about Dumbledore, or why Lavender and Tracey's eyes darkened simultaneously when his name was brought up. He chose to focus on Draco. "What do you mean, some of you are already watching him?"

Future Lavender smiled mischievously at that. "Oh, you'll find out soon enough. It'll be a doozy. You're going to learn a lot this year."

"You're not alone," Future Tracey added. "You're being watched. If there's a problem, or you find out that something's wrong, you go straight to them. We have your back Harry, and we don't make these mistakes twice. You'll know them when you see them."

Harry smiled. "I like that sound of that. Thank you."

"One last thing." Future Susan said. "And it's going to sound crazy, but trust me. Once you've gotten to school, talk to Professor Snape."

"What! Why?!"

Future Tracey raised a hand in a calming gesture. "Easy, Harry. This is important. When you get there, tell him about the pain in your head that's related to Voldemort. Be very specific."

Harry felt his stomach turn over. His connection to Voldemort was something bad enough in itself without having to share it with Snape, who had never shown him much kindness over the years. "But why?"

"Hannah has notes on something that she can only finish with his help," Future Susan responded. "No one knows these more obscure magics like Snape. I know he doesn't look like much, and that he hasn't been very helpful to you over the years, but there's a lot about him you don't know. Please Harry. This is important."

"Tell him that it's involved with your mother's sacrifice for you when you were a baby," Future Lavender finished. "It's all he needs to know."

Harry felt very uneasy about it, but eventually he nodded reluctantly. "Okay. I don't understand it, though."

Future Susan nodded sympathetically. "I know. You'll know everything very soon. I promise."

**On the Train**

"Talk to Snape about your head!" Ron echoed incredulously as he, Harry, Neville, Hermione and Ginny walked down the hall looking for an empty compartment. "Bloody hell, if they hadn't already saved us I'd called them bamy! What for?"

"They didn't say," Harry responded heavily. "I think that they wanted to, but it wasn't the right time. There's so much going on in the world right now that I understand that. They can't afford me doing something stupid because of incomplete information again with things this volatile."

"Harry-" Hermione started, but Harry shook his head.

"It's okay, Hermione. I understand that I made a serious mistake. You could have been hurt or worse. If I'm going to keep doing this, I have to be more careful and more responsible for how I tackle it."

"I know," Hermione responded. Surprised, Harry looked back at her. His bushy haired friend shook her head, slowing her pace a bit. "Harry...I've had two months to think on my future self and some of the things she said. I'm aware that our lives were at stake. But really...I've accepted that."

"Hermione..."

"Remember back in first year you said that if we wanted to turn around, we could...well, we've had the time, haven't we?" Hermione finished.

"We chose to come with you Harry," Ginny piped up. "We know the stakes better now. And this thing about Draco...well, I almost expected it for a while now."

"You have?" Harry asked, turning towards the redhead. Ginny looked back at him, and suddenly Harry could see the girl lying on the floor of the Chamber of Secrets once again. It occurred to him, quite suddenly, that girl had never really gone away. Ginny had hid it well, but she had been so quiet for two entire years...Voldemort had hurt her, and Lucius had given the opening, and it had been a living nightmare. Harry wondered if she'd ever been able to recover from it properly.

"Lucius was the one who gave me the diary," Ginny said, her tone slightly stiff, "And he was a member of the inner circle. We saw him during the attack at the Department. Draco is his son and no matter the punishment he receives he never lets up. He was probably raised in the service of the dark lord. I hoped that it wouldn't come to this, but it looks like it's inevitable now."

Harry was about to respond when he saw two young girls looking back and forth, as though they thought they were being followed, their posture rigid as though facing an enemy. They both had familiar dirty blonde hair.

One of the girls looked in his direction, and Harry saw a flash of mismatched blue and green eyes. With a start, he recognized the younger Hestia and Flora Carrow.

"Isn't that-?" Ron murmured, having made the connection to.

Something reckless seized hold of Harry's heart; he said, "You guys can go ahead without me. I think I found a compartment." Before he could change his mind, he strode over to the open door and stopped just inside.

Flora turned around with surreal quickness, wand in hand, only to stop in confusion when she saw Harry standing there. Hestia was sitting down, holding her wrist in one hand as though it were causing her pain, and looked up with a mixture of fear and shock on her face. They were both thin as a metal railing and had a sleepless look to them, as though they had been running for nights without ever stopping for rest. All in all, they looked unhealthy, but there was a touch of unkempt beauty to both girls, ragged as they were.

Looking at them up close, Harry could see some of the scars that had remained on their Huntress counterparts ever since. That thought cleared his head quite handily, and he raised his hands, clearly showing he meant no harm.

Hestia looked at him uncertainly before saying a soft, "Can we help you?"

"Do you mind if I stay here for a while?" Harry asked softly, seeing the girls' eyes widen in concert. "I'm having trouble finding a compartment."

Flora looked at him in disbelief, clearly waiting for him to say that he was just messing with them and for the crowd to start laughing. But it never came. Hestia looked equally stunned, but there was another look in her eyes that Harry would have recognized immediately, because it was a look he had given many times before he found out that he was a wizard and made his first friend. A faint, but glimmering hope that someone wanted to be near them.

"Alright," Hestia said softly. "A-Are you sure? I, I mean...Harry Potter, sitting with Slytherins?"

Harry shook his head, "Does that really matter in the grand scheme of things? There are only two years of school left." He turned towards Flora. "I mean, if it's alright with you."

Flora stared back at him for a minute that seemed to go on forever. Then she said quietly, "I ... I guess that's okay."

Harry smiled and sat down next to her.

%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&%&

"Tracey!" Ginny said in surprise.

The redhaired Slytherin seemed equally taken aback for having run into Ginny on the train. The train was filling up faster then usual, perhaps the students were spurred on by the promise of safety within the school, but in the rush things were getting a bit mixed up. Ginny had found herself sitting with both Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott after getting separated from Ron, Hermione and Neville. Ginny had wanted to see the two girls, but she couldn't exactly explain the whole 'well-I-sort-of-met-future-versions-of-you-can-we-hang-out' thing without looking crazy, so they had simply chatted about menial things.

Tracey looked surprised and a bit intimidated by the assorted students in the compartment. Ginny knew that Slytherins weren't exactly accepted easily by the rest of the student body, especially in light of Voldemort's return. If you were a non-crazy member of the house, you didn't exactly have a lot of other places to turn.

Ginny remembered when she had first met Tracey, crying in a corner of the library over her father's declaration that she would have to take the Mark once she came of age. Ginny had surprised both Tracey and herself by comforting the other girl, telling her that she was under the protection of Hogwarts and its Headmaster.

They had met up at the library several times, talking each time. Ginny would like to say she was friends with the other girl, but in truth the Slytherin was too afraid to make friends, sure that she was going to end up fighting them when the Mark was forced on her. Tracey was friendly, though Ginny knew she was getting increasingly desperate with her deadline of preparation drawing steadily closer.

Perhaps if she could convince Susan and Hannah to be friendly with her, Tracey would become more confident that she could refuse to take the Mark. They had clearly become friends in the other world, why not here?

"You can sit down in here, if everywhere else is full," Ginny offered, glancing over at Susan and Hannah. The two Hufflepuffs looked perturbed at this announcement, but they didn't reject it despite some wariness. Ginny was relieved, that was a good start.

Tracey smiled hesitantly. "Thank you." Slowly she walked in and sat down next to Ginny, smiling nervously at Susan and Hannah.

There was an awkward silence that pervaded over the next few minutes. Tracey twiddled her fingers, not confident enough to start a conversation. Ginny thought about trying to start it herself, but she didn't think it would break the ice to try and force anything. She hoped this would work out.

Eventually it was Hannah who took the initiative. "Hello," She said politely, "I'm Hannah, and this is Susan."

"Hello," Tracey said softly, her smile growing just a bit.

Hannah seemed emboldened by this, and continued, "I heard that the replacement Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is a dark horse, no one's heard of her before. But apparently she's got really impressive qualifications, because Dumbledore says that he has a very good feeling about her classes."

Tracey's eyes widened in amazement at this. "Really? I mean, this is the same guy who okayed Lockhart, right?"

"I have a good feeling about this one, actually," Ginny said, having her suspicions about who was taking up the post, especially given her parents behaviour whenever it was brought up – nervousness mixed with a good deal of apprehension. "The Duelling course has been reactivated."

"I heard that they're getting a relative of yours to teach it," Susan said, speaking up for the first time in several minutes. She had a rather calculated look on her face, reminding Ginny quite forcefully of her older counterpart. "Can you tell us about her?"

Ginny's stomach lurched. Had _her _counterpart been given a job at Hogwarts? She hadn't considered the possibility, and now butterflies were running wild in her stomach. What could she say, or do? How could she focus on her work when she was essentially being taught by _herself_, when she had so many questions that she wanted to ask?

"Not much," She said carefully, "She's a distant cousin; different branch of the family. I haven't seen much of her. But I know that she's been in some scrapes before. She's really good at what she does."

"They must have reactivated the course because You-Know-Who is back," Susan said. Tracey winced at the words. The Hufflepuff watched Tracey curiously before saying, "They must want us to be prepared to protect ourselves."

"Can we?" Tracey murmured.

"I'm sorry?" Hannah said, looking a bit nervous.

Tracey looked up at Ginny, Susan and Hannah, a hopeless look in her eyes. "Can we protect ourselves against someone like him? All the stories and the anecdotes about him...he's practically unstoppable... only Harry Potter's ever survived an encounter with him. And now he's back."

Tears pricked at the edges of her eyes, and she brushed them away roughly, angry at loosing her composure in front of strangers.

"Well, everyone's ready for him this time," Ginny said, doing her best to sound optimistic. "No one was really ready for what he was capable of this time. And his attempted comeback was a total failure; he didn't complete his objective. I think that's a good omen, personally."

Tracey raised her head slightly, eyes red at the edges, and asked, "You really think that?"

Ginny nodded solemnly. "Besides, I'll fight to my last breath to preserve my right to live," She said. "Everyone's right to live. You-know-who might be powerful, but that doesn't mean I'm going to roll over and let him do whatever he wants. He's just a bully. And how do we handle bullies?"

"You stand up. Push back." Susan finished. Her posture had relaxed noticeably, despite Tracey still being here, and Ginny was relieved at the implication that she no longer suspected the red haired Slytheirn. "You can't say no forever."

"Yes," Ginny said firmly. "I'm going to learn all that I can...and then I'm going to do everything in my power to help this war end."

"But, isn't that dangerous?" Hannah squeaked.

"Of course it is," Ginny said forcefully, "But living in fear is just as dangerous. And if I'm going to die, I'm not going to go out cowering in a corner and begging for my own life. I'll die standing and spitting in the monster's face!"

Tracey's back straightened as she took in Ginny's words, and there was a spark of something in her eyes that made her look more alive then she had ever since Ginny had met her in her fourth year. It was dim for now, but sparks could become fires, and Ginny was glad to see it.

Susan's lips twitched into something almost resembling a smile. "You know what? I think you're onto something there, Ginny."

"Say," Ginny said, "How about we meet up again during the school year? I think it's nice to have friends from different houses."

"It would be good for you Tracey," Hannah said, turning towards Tracey with something like an encouraging smile. "I mean, you're likely a minority in your house right now, but we can watch our for you."

"Y-You don't mind helping me?" Tracey blurted out, eyes widening. "You're not worried? You don't mind being seen with a snake?"

"Of course not," Susan responded. "That would be counterproductive. Besides, anyone who's against Voldemort is a friend of mine."

Ginny smiled as Tracey's eyes lit up and brimmed with gratitude. Maybe this year wouldn't be so dangerous after all.

**At Hogwarts**

Hermione watched as Harry parted ways with the younger Carrow sisters before they got into the Great Hall, so the majority of the Slytherin table wouldn't see them talking. The two girls seemed happier then any time she had seen them before (which was admittedly fleeting beforehand) and they seemed less stressed as they walked towards the edge of the Slytherin table.

Harry walked over to them, and Ron asked, "How'd it go, mate?"

"It was rather nice, actually," Harry said. "Managed to avoid Draco for an entire train trip. Must be a record of some sort." Eyes narrowing, he said, "Speaking of, there he is." He pointed over towards Draco, who stalked in with Crabbe and Goyle at his heels.

"Keep an eye on him," Ron muttered darkly, "Don't have to tell me twice."

Hermione spotted Ginny out of the corner of her eye. To her delight, she saw that the younger girl was coming in with Tracey Davis, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott. "So that's where she got off to," She said admiringly as the girls parted ways with a friendly gesture before heading for their respective tables. "I looked for some of the other girls who's counterparts are here, but they must have found compartments before us."

Her eyes swept the great hall. She saw a head of distinctive silver hair at the Slytherin table; that was the younger Lilith Moon. She spotted a near seventeen Morag saunter over to the Ravenclaw table and sit down next to Luna, a nervous Sally Anne park herself at the very edge of the Hufflepuff table. A beautiful ice queen got up from her seat and moved down towards the Carrows, younger sister in tow, Daphne Greengrass.

Hermione saw an unscarred Lavender walk into the hall, the Patil twins following. Parvati keepin in step, Padma behind them at a more sedate pace, smiling. When they reached the table, Hermione discreetly slipped over and sat down next to them.

"Hello," She said quietly.

Lavender's eyes widened. "Oh, hello Hermione! Aren't you going to sit with Ron and Harry?"

Hermione shook her head, "Well, I have most of my classes with them, and I decided that I wanted to say hello."

Parvati grinned almost blindingly at Hermione. "That's really nice of you! You don't usually talk to us on downtime. Hello Hermione!"

"Hello Parvati." Hermione responded with a smile. The two girls in front of her might be girly and have interests she didn't share, but they had an energy that couldn't be denied. They looked much happier and more relaxed then their Huntress counterparts. It was undeniable that Lavender was a beautiful girl without the scars.

They talked for a while on a variety of subjects, some surprisingly intuitive, before Dumbledore stood up to give his beginning of the year speech.

"Hello, and welcome to another year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. My first order of buisness is to announce a few new members of staff. Some time last week, Professor Binns seemed to have left his classroom and has not returned since. To make up for this, please welcome the lovely Melony Granger, who had offered to take on the post of History of Magic for the rest of this year."

Hermione gasped. The older Hermione Granger stood up at the staff table as applause broke out across the hall. Binns had not been a popular teacher, and while some people were giving her funny looks and looking between her and the older her, most didn't seem to notice it.

"Oooh Hermione, I didn't know you had magical relatives!" Parvati said happily.

"Neither did I," Hermione whispered, struggling to calm herself down. She hoped that no one would take a closer look at the similarities. She wondered if anyone would guess the secret, or what would happen if they did.

Dumbledore waited for the noise to die down before saying, "In light of the darker times we are entering, I found that it was in best interest to arm each and every one of you to the best of the school's abilities. The Duelling course as been reactivated and will be compulsory until further notice; your timetables have been rearranged accordingly. On that note, please welcome Gwendolyn Weasley as your new Duelling instructor."

There was a short surprised silence before cheers erupted from the Gryffindor table, with the rest of the tables hesitantly following suit. Ginny's counterpart stood up, head raised, eyes gleaming in the torchlight.

"She looks like Ginny, doesn't she? Must be the Weasley hair," Lavender remarked.

"Yes," Hermione said, grateful to deflect suspicion. "It is a family trait." She shot a quick glance down at Ginny, who's back had gone rigid but managed to keep her poker face. The girl had grown up quite a bit since they'd first met.

"And finally, the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts will be taken up by darker magic expert Hestia Lewitt. Please give her a warm welcome."

There was more applause, but as Hermione looked down at the Slytherin table, both Hestia and Flora Carrow were frozen and staring at the older Hestia. Had they already made the connection? Slytherin was meant to be the house of the cunning.

That made three Huntress instructors. Hermione dug into her food, re energized at the end of Dumbledore's speech. She had a good feeling about this year after all.

**End Chapter**

**I'm sorry about all the thinking this chapter, but it was the best way for me to establish a few things about Harry and his friends. Now the classes with the Huntresses will all be next chapter and I think you'll enjoy them if I'm doing them right, which I think I will. Now, as I said I have a science project coming up that's a bit of a mouthful so updates might be a bit staggered, sorry about that. I promise I'll do my best to update Finding a New Place to Call Home as soon as I can.**

**Read and Review please. **


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